Arber “Wifi” Xhekaj Has Our Attention

The WiFi is at it again! And I don’t mean my router just shat the bed. Last night in Columbus, Arber “WiFi” Xhekaj of the Montreal Canadiens, and Matthieu Olivier of the hometown Columbus Blue Jackets had a spirited little bout as the second period came to a close.

While we’ve recently bemoaned the reduction of fighting and the classic goon archetype in the “New NHL”, it sure feels like there’ve been quite a few squaring-ups over the last week, eh? Your thoughts are welcome in the comments. My thought? “I’ll take it“.

Montreal had just tied the score at 2-a-side, when the puck needed to be dropped to run off the final second of the period. There used to be a ton of fights like these in the NHL, but these days most guys are content to get to the room, have a smoke… oh, wait… that’s also what they did in the old days. I mean: get to the room, have a Biosteel Recovery drink, do some pilates or whatever the fuck and watch Paramount+ on their Firestick.

Last night, the puck hadn’t even hit the ice and Xhekaj (pronounced Jack-I) and Olivier had their gloves off. WiFi got in a few short rights and a really nice uppercut. Olivier countered with a hard right of his own, which teetered Xhekaj back onto his heels a bit. Olivier then landed a right to score the takedown. He also gave WiFi a shot to the back of the head while he was down.

I score the fight a win for Montreal’s Arber Xhekaj. It’s just “physics” that got the better of him at the end. And if you don’t know about this kid, look him up. They call him WiFi because his last name looks like a WiFi password, and he was out of hockey working at a Costco not all that long ago.

I love that he’s doing whatever he can to avoid having to go back to selling the $1.50 hotdog combo. Oh, even better? Montreal went on to lose 6-4.