Matt Rempe made his presence and lack of presence felt in the New York Rangers’ 3-1 Game Three victory over the Washington Capitals.
In the first period, the giant Rangers enforcer leveled Trevor van Riemsdyk with a late hit that had head contact. Rempe was whistled for a two-minute minor penalty for interference, an acknowledgment by officials that the hit was late. Van Riemsdyk was unable to finish the game due to an upper-body injury.
Three nights after seeing TJ Oshie be temporarily taken out of Game Two due to a high hit by Artemi Panarin, Tom Wilson had seen enough and challenged to Rempe to fight in the second period. Rempe, however, was unwilling to drop the gloves.
Playoff fights are rare and this is an example of why. With the Rangers up 2-1 early in the second period, Rempe likely did not want to do anything that would jeopardize the game and give the Capitals any momentum.
“I’ve been told you can’t hit that late,” Wilson said of Rempe’s bodycheck postgame. “It’s a pretty late hit. It’s a target on one of our D. You hate to see it. I think they’ll obviously look at it and take care of it. Seemed like a couple steamboats late to me.”
Rempe had similar controversial behavior earlier in the season after injuring New Jersey Devils’ forward Nathan Bastian on February 22.
Rempe turned down a fight with Devils defenseman Kurtis MacDermid the very next game and then injured Devils’ defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler with an elbow to the head.
“I knew about the hit on (Nathan) Bastian going into this game. First shift, I asked him,” MacDermid said postgame. “There’s a bit of a code, and I thought he would have answered that, but I don’t know what he was told, but he said no.
“After a hit like that, it goes without saying you should answer the bell in some way, and be a man about it. Then the game goes on then he throws another hit like that. Gets kicked out and possible suspension. There’s a right way to go about things and a wrong way. I lost a lot of respect for him tonight.”
Rempe was ultimately suspended four games for the Siegenthaler hit and fought MacDermid as part of a full-blown line brawl when the two teams next met.
