The 6-foot-7, 241-pound rookie became an instant fan favorite when he made his NHL debut in February. He fought five times down the stretch of the regular season, including on the first shift of his first game, and had five games in which his penalty minutes exceeded his ice time. Even a four-game suspension for [elbowing New Jersey Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler](https://www.nhl.com/news/rangers-rempe-suspended-four-games-for-elbowing-devils-siegenthaler) didn’t slow Rempe.
The rate at which Rempe engaged in fisticuffs eased in the final games of the regular season, but the Capitals were aware, heading into their first-round series against the Rangers, of Rempe’s reputation.
“We talked about their personnel,” Washington Coach Spencer Carbery said when asked about Rempe on Saturday. “Guys are pretty aware of their team [and] individual tendencies.”
We are the tougher team but they showed Sunday they can skate around us pretty easily. They don’t need to play a bruising game when they can cover us so easily in their zone.
Then when they win the puck back they’ve got 3 guys already at half-ice. We need more settled possessions and better scoring chances. We could only throw prayers from the blue-line with how easy it was for them to defend us.
Rempe isn’t all that intimidating, to be honest. We’ve been watching the guy he’s modeled his game off of for the last decade at this point.
The problem is that the only chance we have in the series is to score first because they’re much too fast for us to come back against once they can shut things down even a little bit. Our physicality only matters if we’re tied or ahead on the scoreboard.
The thing we should actually focus on is tinkering with our PP entries so that we can get into the zone consistently. It looks like the Rags are willing to be physical and take penalties as a result, so if we can convert then that would be a huge gain.
4 comments
NEWARK — After scoring the first goal of the [New York Rangers’ first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Washington Capitals](https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/04/20/rangers-capitals-what-to-watch-stanley-cup-playoffs/?itid=ap_baileyjohnson&itid=lk_inline_manual_2) — and just his second goal in the NHL — Rangers forward Matt Rempe [proclaimed](https://twitter.com/MollieeWalkerr/status/1782171818041733237) that he is “built for the playoffs.”
The 6-foot-7, 241-pound rookie became an instant fan favorite when he made his NHL debut in February. He fought five times down the stretch of the regular season, including on the first shift of his first game, and had five games in which his penalty minutes exceeded his ice time. Even a four-game suspension for [elbowing New Jersey Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler](https://www.nhl.com/news/rangers-rempe-suspended-four-games-for-elbowing-devils-siegenthaler) didn’t slow Rempe.
The next time the Rangers and Devils played, Rempe and Kurtis MacDermid dropped the gloves off the opening draw — sparking [a line brawl that led to eight ejections](https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/04/03/rangers-devils-brawl/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5) just two seconds into the game.
The rate at which Rempe engaged in fisticuffs eased in the final games of the regular season, but the Capitals were aware, heading into their first-round series against the Rangers, of Rempe’s reputation.
“We talked about their personnel,” Washington Coach Spencer Carbery said when asked about Rempe on Saturday. “Guys are pretty aware of their team [and] individual tendencies.”
The trick for the Capitals — [who dropped Sunday’s series opener in New York](https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/04/21/rangers-capitals-stanley-cup-playoffs-game-1/?itid=lk_inline_manual_11) and are set to meet the Rangers again for Game 2 on Tuesday night — is to find the balance between establishing their own physicality and playing into what the Rangers want, which is for the threat of Rempe’s physical ability to push Washington into reckless decisions.
Read more here: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/04/23/matt-rempe-rangers-capitals/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/04/23/matt-rempe-rangers-capitals/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)
[deleted]
We are the tougher team but they showed Sunday they can skate around us pretty easily. They don’t need to play a bruising game when they can cover us so easily in their zone.
Then when they win the puck back they’ve got 3 guys already at half-ice. We need more settled possessions and better scoring chances. We could only throw prayers from the blue-line with how easy it was for them to defend us.
Rempe isn’t all that intimidating, to be honest. We’ve been watching the guy he’s modeled his game off of for the last decade at this point.
The problem is that the only chance we have in the series is to score first because they’re much too fast for us to come back against once they can shut things down even a little bit. Our physicality only matters if we’re tied or ahead on the scoreboard.
The thing we should actually focus on is tinkering with our PP entries so that we can get into the zone consistently. It looks like the Rags are willing to be physical and take penalties as a result, so if we can convert then that would be a huge gain.