RALEIGH, N.C. — Jakub Dobes was running out of air after pumping all his into Arber Xhekaj’s tires.
The Montreal Canadiens goaltender referred to Xhekaj as “unbelievable.” He facetiously said, “Without him, I would be screwed.” And then he mockingly concluded, “He’s my favourite guy,” just because Xhekaj was chirping at him as he was conducting his post-game interview.
The thing is, without Xhekaj stepping up before the Canadiens got back to the visiting room at Lenovo Center, Dobes wouldn’t have been yucking it up at all at the end of the game Thursday. The six-foot-four, 240-pound defenceman brought a hard game to one of the hardest forechecking teams in the league, notching a game high in hits and proving stalwart on a night that forced him to be exactly that for multiple reasons. Xhekaj certainly played a big role in Dobes becoming the first Canadiens goaltender to win in Carolina since April of 2016.
Mike Matheson’s absence made it improbable.
“He plays 30 minutes a night,” said Dobes, and though he was only slightly exaggerating this time, at least he was being serious.
Missing Matheson, who averages 25:06, required Lane Hutson, Noah Dobson and Alex Carrier to carry the Canadiens against the Hurricanes.
When none of them could, it forced Xhekaj, Adam Engstrom and Jayden Struble to elevate, and that’s exactly what they did. They’re three players who have been in a rotation with each other to fill out the bottom end of Montreal’s defence, but on this night they proved to what extent depth can make the difference in the uber-jammed standings.
It’s a 16-car pileup in the Eastern Conference; where a team like the Buffalo Sabres just went from draft lottery pole position to playoff spot with a 10-game winning streak; where last-place Columbus has a .513 points percentage; where momentum swings even more wildly from week-to-week than it did within this 7-5 game between the Canadiens and Hurricanes.
Rod Brind’Amour, who’s been coaching the latter for seven years to follow a 21-year playing career, said earlier in the day he’s never seen anything like it.
Neither have we in 18 years covering the league and 38 years watching it.
The talent spread is part of it, but it’s been spread for awhile now.
The condensed schedule due to the upcoming three-week Olympic break feels like the ultimate equalizer, though. It has crushed every team, levelling them with fatigue and injuries and levelling results for the most part.
The Sabres’ recent surge is the anomaly, while the top teams — like Montreal and Carolina — have ridden top-tier talent, but really relied on depth to achieve more consistent results.
“You’re not going to go through this season with 23 guys,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. “You’re probably 30-deep, and that’s for every team in the league … It’s the league … And if you’re 30-deep, it’s good, because it could be way worse than that.”
It is worse for some, no doubt.
Heck, it was way worse than that for a long time for St. Louis’ Canadiens throughout this rebuild.
But not anymore.
Oh sure, Montreal’s top guys are playing huge. Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky and Hutson all scored against the Hurricanes.
But 16th forward Samuel Blais had a goal and an assist. Alex Texier, who couldn’t get into a game with the St. Louis Blues before having his contract ripped up and his NHL career put on life support, had two helpers from a top-line role he’d not be serving in if not for injuries on the Canadiens. And then there was what Xhekaj, Struble and Engstrom brought.
Matheson took the morning skate but ultimately wasn’t able to play after still feeling the effects of the forearm shiver he took from Brad Marchand in Florida two nights prior, so Engstrom went from scratch to partnering with Dobson. He played 19 shifts, skated the puck out of harm’s way consistently, made great breakout passes, brought some offensive pressure, and finished plus-2 without being on for any of the five goals the Hurricanes scored.
Struble was scratched in Florida and returned in Carolina to play one of his best games of the season, notching one assist and finishing plus-2 through 19:17.
And Xhekaj was plus-1, with six hits … which was one more hit than Dobson had giveaways.
“I felt good,” Xhekaj said. “When your best defender goes down, you have to step up. There’s no excuses. You can’t be sitting here after the game saying, ‘Oh, Mike wasn’t playing.’ It’s ‘Mike’s not playing and it’s time to go, it’s time to step up.’ Your team needs you to step up and it doesn’t matter how young you are, how many games you have.”
That’s what the league demands now.
The Hurricanes know.
They’ve put together the best record in the Metropolitan Division without No. 1 defenceman Jaccob Slavin for all but five games this season. Veteran Shayne Gostisbehere watched Thursday’s contest alongside Slavin — missing a 12th game since the puck dropped in October — and star forward Seth Jarvis hasn’t played since Dec. 19.
The Canadiens, meanwhile, have accumulated 50 points in 40 games — and most of them without key defenceman Kaiden Guhle.
Patrik Laine has been injured since Oct. 16, Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook have been out since mid-November, and Jake Evans has been missing since Dec. 20.
So, if you were wondering why a game at the halfway mark of the season looked more like pre-season shinny than playoff hockey, it probably has more to do with that and the relentless schedule and much less to do with the reason St. Louis provided afterwards.
“It was New Year’s Eve last night,” he said. “I’m going to blame it on that.”
The coach was joking around, laughing heartily as he said it.
Dobes’s delivery was far more deadpan when talking about Xhekaj, but he should be seriously thankful for what he got from the big guy — and the other two depth defencemen — in Thursday’s game.
