Arber Xhekaj jumped by two opponents – fans furious with officials

Since making his NHL debut, Arber Xhekaj has earned a reputation for being one of the toughest players in the league and one of the best fighters as well.

During Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers, it looked like we were about to witness a fight between Xhekaj and Flyers captain Sean Couturier, but things took an unexpected turn, and the Montreal Canadiens were wrongfully penalized for it.

In the first period, both Xhekaj and Couturier appeared to agree on a fight, as they both dropped their gloves.

Couturier was actually the first to drop his gloves, but suddenly, Flyers defenseman Nick Seeler jumped in and threw a punch at an unsuspecting Xhekaj. The altercation quickly went from a fair one-on-one to a two-on-one, with Xhekaj being overwhelmed by two Flyers players after being blindsided and thrown to the ice by Seeler.

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Officials promptly broke up the fight, but after things settled down, the referees made a questionable decision about the incident.

It was clear that Couturier dropped his gloves first, and then Seeler joined in as a third man. Despite this, the referees only called Arber Xhekaj for an unsportsmanlike penalty, allowing both Flyers players to go unpenalized.

Fans in Montreal felt completely robbed, not only of an exciting fight but also of a power play. Instead, the Flyers ended up with a man advantage but failed to capitalize on it.

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Just three minutes later, the Canadiens scored to make it 1-0 and eventually won 4-3. However, after the game, criticism of the referees for the call on Xhekaj was widespread.

“Yeah, this one doesn’t make a whole lotta sense to me,” one fan said on social media.

“Refs are gonna have to give an explanation on this one. He even made the signal for kicking out Seeler, then just didn’t kick him out,” another commented.

“Third man in, should’ve been a game misconduct and ejection for Seeler,” a third fan added.

“This is legitimately the most nonsensical call I’ve seen. I cannot see how they justify that,” said a fourth.