Gavin McKenna’s decision to bail out of a looming hit from Arber Xhekaj became one of the night’s most talked-about moments after Montreal’s win in Toronto.
Xhekaj was closing in with a heavy shoulder check in mind, but McKenna gave up the puck and got out of the way instead. The reaction online was immediate, with plenty of fans reading it as fear. But with a 6-foot-4, 240-pound defenseman bearing down, the safer choice can be the smarter one.
McKenna is 18 and still settling into the NHL, and he knows the kind of damage Xhekaj can deliver when he lands a clean hit. That reputation is backed up by the numbers: Xhekaj has 32 penalty minutes in 16 games this season and 448 in 246 career appearances.
That’s what made the sequence stand out. When Xhekaj comes flying in, the decision often isn’t just about making a play - it’s about whether the puck is worth the punishment that might follow. McKenna’s move suggested that calculation happened in real time.
Xhekaj logged 12:23 yesterday and was assessed a two-minute penalty, a call that left head coach Martin St-Louis looking baffled and added another layer to an already busy night for the defenseman.
The spotlight on Xhekaj had already been building. On Friday, he answered his critics on Instagram with a photo of himself and the caption: "momentum??" Then, two days later, he was back in the conversation without even throwing the hit.
McKenna, though, did plenty of his own damage on the night. He scored a goal, fired four shots on net and played nearly 16 minutes against Montreal. Through 18 games with Toronto, he has 12 points and six goals.
So this wasn’t a case of a player shrinking from the moment. It was a split-second choice to avoid a heavy collision, and the debate around it has kept rolling.
Jordan Decker also chimed in, saying McKenna had pulled the same move before.
"He did the exact same thing in the season opener lol."
If that’s true, Xhekaj has clearly been on McKenna’s mind for a while. And for Montreal’s most intimidating defenseman, that’s part of the package: sometimes the threat is enough to force the turnover.
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