Michael Andlauer has known Arber Xhekaj for a long time. It was with the Hamilton Bulldogs (now Brantford), of which Andlauer remains the owner, that Xhekaj played when he terrorized the Ontario League (OHL) teams during his final year in junior. Today, all this is very ironic for the owner of the Ottawa Senators who is not kind to the intimidating defenseman.
“I’m looking at the rivalry at the moment through a player that I found myself,” underlined the businessman, former minority shareholder of the CH Group, during a privileged interview with the TVA Sports journalist. Renaud Lavoie. “It was a “Bulldog”. I introduced him to the Canadiens before he was on the team.”
At the time, Andlauer was far from suspecting that Xhekaj, his old “find”, would violently hit a star of his club during the preparatory calendar.
“He’s annoying me now by attacking one of my superstars,” railed the big boss of the Senators, referring to Xhekaj’s attack on Tim Stützle. “There, I hate him. I’m not very proud of him. He’s a better player than what he’s showing right now.”
Make no mistake, Andlauer takes a very positive view of the rivalry that has heated up between the Canadiens and the Senators.
“It’s good,” he rejoiced. “There should be more matches between rivals. You saw the rivalry between Toronto and Ottawa last year, with Ridly Greig’s slapshot into an empty net. That was against the Toronto fans who were in Ottawa. It was directed at them.”