{"id":349259,"date":"2025-12-16T16:32:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T16:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/349259\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T16:32:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T16:32:07","slug":"back-from-injury-rangers-matt-rempe-says-he-wont-be-deterred-from-dropping-gloves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/349259\/","title":{"rendered":"Back from injury, Rangers’ Matt Rempe says he won’t be deterred from dropping gloves"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Matt Rempe<\/a> kept jabbing away at Ryan Reaves<\/a> not knowing his left thumb had already broken from getting tangled up in his combatant\u2019s jersey during their heavyweight fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just kept going bang, bang, bang, and I guess I was just kind of breaking it and breaking it,\u201d Rempe said. \u201cBut when you\u2019re in a fight, you don\u2019t feel anything, so you had no idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

After he and Reaves told each other, \u201cGood fight,\u201d in the penalty boxes, Rempe looked down and realized something was very wrong. \u201cI was like, \u2018Oh my God, this thing\u2019s not right,\u2019\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

That was Oct. 23, and Rempe finally returned to the New York Rangers<\/a>\u2019 lineup Monday night after missing the past 24 games. With his team struggling, coach Mike Sullivan is glad to have the imposing 6-foot-9 winger back on the ice<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he\u2019s in the lineup, he makes an impact,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cHe creates anxiety for our opponents. That\u2019s an area where I think he can help us. He gets in on the forecheck, he leans on people, he goes to the net front, he makes it hard on people. He makes an impact on the game with the way he plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rempe is just glad he can make an impact again. The injury occurred the day before he was supposed to fly to his hometown of Calgary, which was a downer for the 22-year-old respected teammate and fan favorite.<\/p>\n

Knocking on the side of his wooden locker, Rempe pointed out that he has been in over a dozen fights in the NHL and nearly 50 in his life and never got hurt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was bound to happen eventually, and it\u2019s a part of the game,\u201d Rempe said. \u201cJust a couple months. The season\u2019s long. It happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rempe is a throwback kind of enforcer in hockey, which has seen fighting decrease substantially over the past couple of decades. He does not plan to let a broken thumb deter him from dropping the gloves moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot at all,\u201d Rempe said, acknowledging he\u2019s on the no-fight list for the time being. \u201cI can\u2019t for a little while because I can\u2019t really bend it correctly yet. A couple more weeks and it\u2019ll be golden, but I can\u2019t for a little bit, which sucks, but it\u2019s all right because you just go play hockey and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anaheim\u2019s Ross Johnston<\/a> asked Rempe to fight in his return, but the circumstances made that not doable.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe doesn\u2019t know what\u2019s up with the thumb and stuff, and he\u2019s doing his job,\u201d Rempe said. \u201cI was like, \u2018Hey I can\u2019t go,\u2019 and he understands that and he\u2019s probably been there before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just the opportunity to skate in a game again completed a relatively quick comeback for Rempe, who had to go through weeks of power skating without a stick, then progressed to light stickhandling and passing and into full practices. Sullivan would have liked to get Rempe into more battle drills in practice but lamented the lack of chances to simulate game-like activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis conditioning is great,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cHe\u2019s worked extremely hard to get himself in the position where his fitness level is really high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rempe felt good about his nine minutes as he eases back in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t thank all the trainers and the team staff and everyone and all the docs who worked on the surgery enough because they did a great job and got me back quicker than I thought originally, so it was really good,\u201d Rempe said. \u201dIt was a lot of fun being back after a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NHL: https:\/\/www.apnews.com\/hub\/NHL<\/p>\n

Stephen Whyno, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Matt Rempe kept jabbing away at Ryan Reaves not knowing his left thumb had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-349259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}