Montreal Canadiens' Arber Xhekaj May Face Suspension After He is Caught Punching Official in the Face

Montreal Canadiens' defenseman Arber Xhekaj will likely be suspended tomorrow after he was ejected for punching a linesman during a scrum with Bruins forward Mark Kastelic.

Things got chippy during the second period tonight between the Bruins and Habs.

With the Bruins up by three goals, the young Canadiens team appeared to get frustrated, particularly defenseman Arber Xhekaj, who is known as an enforcer around the league.

A major scrum erupted about halfway through the game after Kastelic tripped up Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson.

It is clear that Xhekaj was out there to defend his much smaller partner as he immediately tried to drop the gloves with the Bruins forward.

From there, things nearly devolved into a proper line brawl, but ultimately only Xhekaj and Kastelic actually dropped the gloves.

Unfortunately for the Habs defenseman, the referees stepped in right away to try and break things up before they escalated too much.

Xhekaj was not having any of that though as he continued to try and throw punches.

Unfortunately for him, that punch did not actually connect with Kastelic. Instead, he landed right in the face of the linesman in between them.

This is pretty much an automatic suspension in the NHL. While the league seemingly cannot decide what is suspension worthy when it comes to headshots, abuse of officials is a bridge too far.

The league typically gives players rather hefty suspensions for these kinds of incidents so it may very well be a decent amount of time before we see the 23-year-old on the ice again.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow for an announcement from the Department of Player Safety.

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