The room was colder than it should have been for a midweek skate—too quiet, too wired. Montreal’s sticks rattled against the bench like jittery metronomes, and somewhere past the visitors’ tunnel in Ottawa, a camera caught Arber Xhekaj pausing at the lip of the ice, eyes steady, jaw set. “We remember what happened,” he said, and the words didn’t just hang; they stuck. They clung to every storyline that never quite got written last time, to every bruise that faded but didn’t forgive, to every whistle that arrived just a second too late.

You could feel it in the way the coaches lowered their voices, in the way veterans leaned into their tape jobs as if these wraps might be called into evidence later. The Canadiens’ room smelled like fresh glue and old grudges. Across the hall, the Senators’ laughter had that careful polish you only hear before something unpredictable—playful, but clipped at the edges. The ushers knew. The trainers definitely knew. The players knew more than they said. The fans sensed it in the pregame hum that climbed the rafters and wouldn’t come down.

There is a sentence that hasn’t been printed yet, one that belongs to last spring, or maybe to a second period nobody wants to relive. It lives in the way Xhekaj checks the clock and then doesn’t check it again. It lives in the way a fourth-line winger wears a look that doesn’t belong to a fourth line at all. It hides in a hallway memory that involves a door, a word, and a stare that lasted exactly three seconds longer than the cameras caught. The kind of thing that becomes folklore in a rivalry like this—never confirmed, always recalled.

So what changes now? The lineup card, perhaps, with a name placed one spot higher than expected. A pairing that seems innocent until it isn’t. A shift pattern that says, subtextually, we will not wait to see what they do first. And there’s another detail, one that didn’t make the morning notes, that will make more sense when the first body meets the glass and the second body doesn’t move away. Not a threat. Not a promise. A decision.

Ottawa has its own receipts. The building remembers songs that turned sharp after a hit everyone pretended was clean. There’s a file stamped somewhere—internal, quiet—about a scrum that started with nothing and became a map of who wanted what and how far they’d go to get it. The league won’t discuss it. The players won’t spell it out. But look closely, and you’ll see the tell: the extra jaw guard, the subtle nod at center, the way the captain’s greeting stops just short of friendly.

Tonight, this isn’t just a game; it’s a page torn from a book that people keep trying to close. And if you listen—really listen—you’ll hear the one detail from the past that changes the present more than all the talk ever could. It’s not in the quotes. It’s not in the clips. It’s in the moment that led to the line no one will cross… until someone does.

Oct 5, 2024; Ottawa, Ontario, CAN; Montreal Canadiens defenseman Wiilliam Trudeau (84) battles with Ottawa Senators center Nick Cousins (21) for the puck in the third period at the Canadian Tire Centre. Mandatory Credit: Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images

Photo credit: Marc DesRosiers-Imagn Images

It’s clear that the Montreal Canadiens players haven’t forgotten the dangerous hit delivered by Nick Cousins on Ivan Demidov in Quebec back in September.

Here’s a reminder of the footage:

Today, the message coming from the Canadiens locker room was loud and clear: they haven’t forgotten what Cousins did to Demidov.

Arber Xhekaj himself commented on the matter:

“We remember what happened,” confirmed Arber Xhekaj after Friday’s practice. “Nobody likes dirty hits like that.”

No, Nick Cousins likely won’t be having a pleasant evening tomorrow!

“We see them so often,” said Xhekaj, whose circle of enemies keeps growing in the nation’s capital.

“We’re two young teams trying to make a name for ourselves and become contenders for the Stanley Cup,” he continued. “Our rebuilding processes are pretty much at the same stage, so we’re two teams that don’t really like each other.”

– Arber Xhekaj

During his show on BPM Sports, host Georges Laraque went even further:

Knowing Arber Xhekaj and Josh Anderson, Georges Laraque believes Nick Cousins won’t finish tomorrow’s game

That sets the tone nicely!

“Oh no, you won’t finish the game.

Nick Cousins, you’ve been such a coward!

You were such a coward you didn’t even want to play the last preseason game against the Montreal Canadiens. You’re coming to our house, there are guys coming after you and you know it… Someone’s going to take care of you!”

– Georges Laraque, BPM Sports

Can’t wait to see how this one unfolds tomorrow night!