Matt Rempe gets into heated skirmish in Rangers first scrimmage
The first scrimmage of a critical Rangers training camp for Matt Rempe nearly included a vintage Rempe fight.Around the end of the first period in a two-period intrasquad scrimmage Thursday, 5-foot-11 Marc Del Gaizo checked the 6-foot-9 Rempe along the boards, which prompted Rempe to start shoving in return as Del Gaizo’s helmet came off and teammates skated over to separate them.The skirmish never escalated to a full fight with punches thrown, but it still served as the lasting image of physicality in a practice filled with it to start a condensed preseason.Will Cuylle decked rookie defenseman Alberts Smits in the corner.
J.T.Miller shoved Carey Terrance to the ice, too.
But the closest any of the Rangers got to tensions boiling over in training camp occurred when Rempe and Del Gaizo — a defenseman and a Basking Ridge, N.J.native — collided along the side boards and Rempe became visibly frustrated.Rempe has fought 12 times across his NHL career, according to HockeyFights, and in one last season, he broke his thumb, underwent surgery, ended up having another procedure done in January and faced a long path back to the lineup.
He struggled to win puck battles.He struggled with shooting.
Even gripping his stick became challenging.When the Rangers unveiled their first set of lines Thursday, in a training camp that doubles as a sprint to the season opener Sept.29 against the Bruins, Rempe rotated in as an extra.
Tye Kartye, Joe Veleno and Jarslav Chmelař skated on the fourth line — a sign, albeit with a small sample size, that Rempe likely has to play his way into the lineup.And then he ended up being at the center of the defining moment of physicality in the first session, too.“These guys, I think they recognize the importance of everyday and trying to maximize every opportunity we have when we get on the ice because we don’t have that many of them,” head coach Mike Sullivan said generally of the first day.“They came to play today.
There was real ...