Leafs’ Reaves on Canadiens’ Xhekaj: ‘You wanna point at the scoreboard and get rattled for seven…tough look’

Toronto Maple Leafs enforcer Ryan Reaves wanted to spark his teammates with a first-period fight against Montreal Canadiens’ defenseman Arber Xhekaj last Saturday, and instead of dropping the mitts, Xhekaj just pointed to the scoreboard.

The Canadiens got out to an early 3-0 lead over the Maple Leafs, and towards the end of the first period, Reaves, inserted into the lineup for his toughness, wanted to do his part to change the momentum of the game. Turns out, he didn’t have to fight to do that. After Xhekaj declined to fight, and brushed off Reaves with his glove, the Maple Leafs took over from there, and wound up scoring seven unanswered goals to take home a 7-3 win.

Reaves was asked by TSN’s Mark Masters about the incident after practice on Tuesday, and it’s clear the Maple Leafs’ tough guy believes karma got the best of Montreal’s enforcer. “I guess so, yeah,” stated Reaves, when asked about karma for Xhekaj following the ‘shoo off’. “Anytime there’s a fight now, somebody needs some momentum, and if he needed momentum and asked me and I give it to him, then, I expect it back.”

“And I would have obliged if he would have done it there. But, you want to point at the scoreboard and then get rattled off for seven, then it’s a tough look.”

After Xhekaj declined the fight, the Maple Leafs used seven different goal scorers to take over the game. While Xhekaj was just trying to ensure all the momentum and emotion in the game was on the positive side for the Canadiens, it became obvious quickly in the second period, his intentions resulted in the polar opposite.

The ironic part of the incident is that Reaves has yet to have a single fight this season. His last fight in the regular season dates back to Apr. 6, 2024, when he dropped the gloves with Canadiens forward Michael Pezzetta.

Montreal and Toronto don’t play each other again until Apr.12.