For a second year in a row, Alex Newhook held a golf tournament in St. John’s, Newfoundland, and the event included a Q&A with a few special guests. On the stage alongside Newhook were his sister Abby Newhook, who the Boston Fleet of the PWHL recently drafted, Montreal Canadiens teammates Arber Xhekaj, Jakub Dobes, and Jayden Struble, and former Habs Michael Pezzetta and Chris Nilan.
David Amber played the role of master of ceremonies and asked many questions to the players, a few of which are worth reporting. The panel was asked which rule change they would like to see in the league, and Dobes had a surprising answer. The netminder would like to see more goalie fights and laments that the linesmen step in too early to stop them. He refused to say which masked man he would like to fight, however. As for Xhekaj, he explained that he would eliminate the shootout; instead, he prefers continuous overtime. He even mentioned that a shootout, while flashy, ruins the game. Meanwhile, Newhook would do away with the delay-of-game penalty when the puck is thrown over the glass. As for Pezzetta, he would uniformize the high-sticking penalty, doing away with the four-minute infraction when one draws blood.
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It was also interesting to see the answers to the “who should be mic'd up on the ice?” question. Newhook picked Brad Marchand because of the Stanley Cup champion’s antics on the ice, before adding that Cole Caufield would be interesting since he’s loud and all over the place. Struble interjected to say Lane Hutson would be funny, and Xhekaj jumped in to add that the Calder Trophy winner once apologized to a guy who had just received a penalty on him. The gritty defenseman also suggested Juraj Slafkovsky would be interesting since he’s yelling in Slovakian and you can’t even understand what he’s saying half the time.
Another noteworthy question was where the players would like to see expansion teams. Dobes came out of left field with a London, England-based team. Nilan said he wouldn’t want to see Atlanta again before saying Houston is a possibility, and he would like to see Quebec City, but he added that “Mr. Molson wouldn’t like that,” and he’s not sure if they could fill up the building for a whole season.
As always, Nilan found the way to entertain the crowd when he was asked what winning the Stanley Cup in Montreal was like. He explained that winning in that market is special, and given the option to win in Montreal or Anaheim, the choice was obvious. But the big chuckle came when he added, “Even in New Jersey, they had a parade in a parking lot [insert expletive here]”.
That led to him talking about game 3 of the series against the Washington Capitals this season, saying it was the loudest he’d ever seen the building. Asked about that game, which was the first of his career in the playoffs, Dobes mentioned that he was nervous, but it ended up well since they won. While he was talking, you could see something was burning on Arber Xhekaj’s lips, and seconds later, he let it out:
So Dobby stands by the bench, right close to their bench, and he’s looking over and chirping every single guy that comes off the ice, yelling at them, chirping them. Next thing you know, our goalie gets hurt and Dobby has to go in…uh oh.
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The young netminder admitted that the story was true and added that the Caps were not nice to him in the first five minutes. Xhekaj then explained that’s how the bench brawl started. At the end of the period, Dobes had to skate through the Caps to get back to the Canadiens’ room, but they all decided to stand there and wait to have a word with him. The tough guy added: “And then I got in there and it was madness”. Pleading his case, the rookie netminder added that he didn’t even say anything that bad.
That night really was special at the Bell Centre last season. It will be interesting to see what the building is like this upcoming season if the Canadiens do make the playoffs for a second year in a row.
Photo credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
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