Sens v Habs: The War Begins Again

Written By: Tyler Beauchesne

RECOMMENDATION: play “Meet The Grahams” by Kendrick Lamar as you read this, it will help the mood.

Arber Xhekaj is a glorified bum who will be out of the league in two years… Habs fans, do I have your attention now or did you already message Brandon calling the site trash and saying he should fire me? It doesn’t matter either way, you gave us a click so we already won. 

Sens fans, we have waited all summer for this season to start. I feel great about the year but I know some of you have reservations about this year, and I completely understand. This team has often broken your heart, leaving you wondering if you could ever love again. Way too frequently has this team built up your expectations, claiming glory and success will be brought back to the nation’s capital. They build it up just to burn it down to ashes in November, leaving you feeling sad and miserable. The pain still lingers, and you do not know if you can trust them again as you cannot get hurt like this another time. 

Well, I am here to tell you that it will be okay. Life is not worth living unless you take chances, and I will take a chance on love (this team) again. I have a feeling good things will come this year because the team has worked towards that goal. This last Wednesday, we finally got Ullmark extended to make sure he is not a one-and-done goaltender in this city. On Thursday, we beat the cup defending Florida Panthers 3-1! That is the step in the right direction that this city needed.

But to achieve that goal, you have to beat other teams and one of their first few matchups is against a storied rival…the Montreal Canadiens.

Now, the way some of these Habs fans talk about their franchise you would think they have won a cup every year since the league’s creation. In reality, they are a washed-up commodity banking off nostalgia and history to keep their success going. They haven’t won a cup since the Sens came back to the league and I will give credit where credit is due, it must be tough keeping up that delusion when you haven’t won a cup since before the release of Toy Story. 

Now I know what you pesky Habs fans wanna say, “You haven’t won anything either so what can you say?” which is correct, I just sound like Conor McGregor talking crap on the floor after he broke his leg. Let me ask you this, there’s a whole generation of Habs fans out there around my age who rep those 24 banners despite not even being alive for any one of them. What ground can they stand on to claim they are better than us? To those fans, I say this: Your dad can say that but you need to sit down and stay humble!

Now back to the present day, the Sens have not lost to the Habs since March 22nd, 2022. It feels so good to have nine straight wins looking for our tenth today. Since history is a big topic for you Habs fans, let me share some historical facts: The Sens are 81-70-5-11 against the Habs. Also, their first win as a franchise was on October 8th, 1992 and they beat, you guessed it, the Habs.

Sorry to have to bring that up, it must hurt when some of your team’s history doesn’t fit the narratives you build up.

*NOTE: Arber Xhekaj helps with a charity called The Angel Project and is probably a good locker room guy. I’m attacking him as a player not as a person*

Speaking of intentionally hurting people, let’s bring up the man himself: Arber Xhekaj. Arber Xhekaj is the greatest grifting scheme on planet Earth; just easy engagement from either fanbase when he is brought up. I swear saying his name is like trying to conjure Candyman with some of these fans if you have something critical to say. So many good players on your team and you chose him, you all need better taste for real.

Last weekend, I saw pictures like the one below and thought: “Wow, this guy must have done a great amount against the Senators to be called our owner!”

Then, I went to Stathead.com to see his stats against Ottawa all time and found this:

Look at that! Dominating with four penalty minutes, a lethal 5 shots on goal and a -4 plus/minus differential. I was so wrong, this Xhekaj is a generational defender. This man owns our franchise for sure, he’s the face of the league with stats like this. Kent Hughes, give this man the max extension this summer! You were lucky to get him at such a steal and every team in the league is gonna want him, mark my words. Pathetic, I thought Habs fans were supposed to have higher standards than this.

These are the stats of a fringe NHLer. His fans flex his preseason highlights but when Shane Pinto gets a hat trick, “preseason doesn’t matter”. Arber Xhekaj is a stain on the game of hockey, he has to fight and intentionally injure people to secure his spot in the lineup. There’s no value to his game outside of playing dirty, he tried to injure Tim Stutzle last week and witnessed what happens when a grown man like Brady Tkachuk gets his hands on him… Sorry, I forgot preseason does not matter when it’s against your team.

Let’s make one thing clear: Tkachuk is not ducking Xhekaj. It’s pathetic to continue this narrative that a first-liner should fight a seventh defender to “prove a point”. It’s just to keep Tkachuk off the ice because he’s a stud. Isn’t it funny that Xhekaj’s best value is when he takes himself off the ice? He wishes he was half the player that Matt Cooke is, at least he has a ring.

You Habs fans demonize Cedric Pare for what he did to Patrick Laine, but Laine came out and said he was partially at fault and Pare reached out to him to apologize. When Ridly Greig took out Kirby Dach, Dach was fine in the end and Greig apologized saying his move wasn’t okay.

Now, when Xhekaj took out Stutzle, why haven’t Habs fans acknowledged his wrongdoing? I know why, it’s because you all have excuses when it comes to your players and their dirty play. Some of you are parading around Twitter, praying that Matthews or Stutzle gets an ACL tear. All because your team dealt with some issues, you act like a bunch of crybabies who need to grow up.

Now let’s get to the last part of the story, the reason why I dislike the Habs (not as much as the Leafs I will say that) and it’s a weird reason I won’t lie: Carey Price. No, I do not hate Carey Price at all. Aside from Craig Anderson, he was one of my favourite goalies to watch growing up. What I hate is what the Habs did with him, which was nothing.

It sucks when a rival gets franchise goaltending for decades. Normally I would cheer on such incompetence to not capitalize but man with Price, it sucks to see potential wasted by loyalty. He was one of the most gifted goalies of our generation, with his 2013-2014 year being one of the best all-time seasons at his position. Don’t forget his gold medals with Team Canada as well. Price gave all that incredible work and how did the organization pay him back? Trick question: they didn’t.

In his tenure, Price has only seen one Finals run, one conference finals run, one 80-point player, no rings, and no president’s trophies. At least he had Shea Weber and P.K Subban, but management never gave Price a great team. They were scared for years to pull the trigger on a full rebuild. As a result,  it cost them the potential to be a dynasty. He gave his body to take a 25th seed to the finals and that run ended his career. Price did not fail the Habs, the Habs failed him!

I am glad that the rebuild is going well, and I hope that it goes to plan. The day that it ends and the Senators beat them will be glorious because there will be no excuses! So go out there tonight and give it your all against the Sens, as you continue to build the squad that I call “the team that Carey Price deserved”.