Florian Xhekaj Fights Flyers Vet, Scores In Preseason Debut For Montreal Canadiens

The last name "Xhekaj" is not only hard to spell and pronounce, but it's very familiar to Montreal Canadiens fans, thanks to tough-as-nails defenseman Arber Xhekaj.

But, on Tuesday night, his younger brother Florian Xhekaj — who spent last season with the Habs' AHL affiliate Laval Rocket — made his NHL preseason debut, and he followed in his older brother's footsteps by fighting one of the best knuckle-chuckers in the game, Philadelphia Flyers forward Nicolas Deslauriers.

The Xhekaj's hit the Bell Centre ice with their mom looking on, and Florian didn't wait long to steal the show in Montreal's 4-2 win.

He potted Montreal's second goal of the night about halfway through the first period.

Now that's one way to get the attention of head coach Martin St. Louis and GM Kent Hughes,

You know what else tends to get those eyebrows a-raisin' in the preseason, too? A fight.

A little over seven minutes into the second period, Xhekaj dropped them with Deslauriers, who has 761 career PIMs and is known to be one of the league's best fighters.

It was a good one tilt, and Deslauriers got a lot of props on social media for keeping it clean with a rookie like Xhekaj.

Now, why would Deslauriers drop the gloves with a rookie looking to crack the roster? Well, sometimes the guy looking to make the team asks for it to get some attention.

But after the game, Xhekaj revealed that Deslauriers said he wanted to fight him since last season the Flyers dropped them with his older brother, who can really throw 'em.

How cool is that?

Deslauriers has a solid reputation around the NHL, and I think you can see why.

But let's go back to Florian Xhekaj. He finished the night an assist shy of a Gordie Howe hat trick.

Not bad for a preseason debut. 

If he keeps that up, I could see him cracking the Habs' roster, and I think they could be a team to watch this season.