Arber Xhekaj accuses the Senators of making offensive comments.

The bad blood spills over off the ice.

Jonathan Larrivee
Jonathan Larrivee
Published 1 year ago
Arber Xhekaj accuses the Senators of making offensive comments.
Scott Matla/Twitter

The Montreal Canadiens and the Ottawa Senators got their rivalry off to an early start on Sunday when an exhibition game between the prospects from both organizations turned ugly.

It was Canadiens defenseman Arber Xhekaj that was the catalyst for the ugliness on Sunday, with Xhekaj setting the tone early when he took out Senators forward Viktor Lodin with a late hit in the early going of the first period.

In spite of the fact that you might have expected the criticisms after the game to be directed at Xhekaj, and in some cases they were with Senators prospect Angus Crookshank calling out Xhekaj after the game, it was actually Xhekaj himself who spoke to the media following the game to admonish some of the players on the Senators side of the ice.

While he didn't call anyone out by name or go into any great detail, Xhekaj mentioned he spoke to the officials at one point due to offensive comments that were being made by some of the players on the Senators bench.

It seems like a forgone conclusion that the rivalry between these two teams is only just getting started this season and despite being an undrafted prospect Arber Xhekaj may have been the man who lit the fuse. He certainly made a name for himself on Sunday night when he put an exclamation point on the game by dropping Senators defenseman Zachary Morissette in spectacular fashion.

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