"This guy needs to be banned from NHL": Fans irate with Arber Xhekaj's hit on Tim Stutzle which forced Brady Tkachuk to drop the gloves

The NHL preseason game between the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday saw a controversial hit by the Canadiens' Arber Xhekaj on Senators forward Tim Stutzle. The open-ice hit caught Stutzle in the head, knocking his helmet off and sending him to the ice.

The hit immediately drew the ire of Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, who quickly dropped his gloves and challenged Xhekaj to a fight. Tkachuk managed to take Xhekaj to the ice before both players were sent to their respective locker rooms.

Xhekaj, who attacked the Maple Leafs' Cedric Pare after a knee-on-knee hit on Habs teammate Patrik Laine, received a game misconduct for the open-ice hit.

Fans on social media were furious with Xhekaj, with one fan tweeting,

"This guy needs to be banned from the NHL. That's the only way to send a message."

Another fan noted,

"Xhekaj: Emboldened by his non-suspension the other night. The @NHL made a huge, huge mistake. Might have to give him 20 games for this one to make up for it?" a fan on X said, referencing Xhekaj's retaliation on Cedric Pare.

Here are some fan reactions:

"Nhl has to do something with Xhekaj wether suspended him for a good amount of time or huge fine" one fan wrote on X.

"that’s disgusting, and it’s even more sickening people are supporting this" another fan wrote.

"F**ing dirtbag, jumps a guy one game and head hunts the next, get out the league ya f**king plug" a user commented.

While one fan called Xhekaj out, he also put some of the blame on Tim Stützle for his past actions on the ice.

"Xhrlaj is a dirty player but stützle has been warned this would happen if he kept diving and whining…" another user wrote.

The Senators ended up winning the game 4-3.

Arber Xhekaj retaliated against Cedric Pare last week after Patrik Laine hit

During the preseason game on Saturday between the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs, there was an altercation between Arber Xhekaj and Cedric Pare following a collision involving Patrik Laine.

Pare's knee-on-knee collision with Laine caused the Habs player to hobble to the bench and later forced him out of the game.

In response, Arber Xhekaj went after Pare, punching him repeatedly even as Pare was down on the ice.

While the Canadiens were clearly upset over potentially losing Laine to injury, Pare defended himself after the game saying he did not intend to injure Laine.

"He's got to defend his teammates. I wasn't. I mean I wasn't ready for that, like kinda caught me by surprise, but, you know, started doing like that, I gotta face it," Pare said of Xhekaj's retaliation.

Arber Xhekaj was not suspended for his actions against Pare. Instead, he received a whopping 27 minutes in penalties along with a game misconduct.