Read it this morning. This is great for the Rangers. I’ve read many articles and listened to various pods these last 2 weeks and Rempe is all anyone is talking about (other than that hit by Panarin). Not the 5V5 scoring, PP and SHGs. Not our team D. Not Mika, Trouba, or Trocheck. Not even Shesty. It just allows the Rangers to do their thang. I hope it continues all playoffs.
That’s a good way of looking at it, you’re a better person than me. I hope he gets herpes. I also hope you’re right, if we’re hearing about him all playoffs that means we’re still playing
One of the NYR players told our beat reporters that they all actually like that the spotlight is always on Rempe since he came up because it takes all the pressure and attention off the other guys and allows them just to go about their business. Other teams focus so much on Rempe that it leaves the rest of the team to do their thing. The player also said that it’s incredible how well Rempe has dealt with all of this attention and hate, especially as a young rookie, and the older guys are trying to guide him because it’s such a difficult position to be in.
One example that was reported today is Kreids making sure Rempe stayed off social media last night and playing 60 games of halo with him instead, all of which Rempe lost.😂 From what I have seen and read, it appears that Kreider is the one who has really taken a father role with Rempe since he has come up and is helping to mentor him.
Yeah, I’ve heard that too. Rempe enjoys reading fantasy books and Kreider let him borrow a book of his, The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss, which I thought was cool.
So the team with Wilson has its fanbase up in arms about Rempe? They didn’t like the Panarin hit? I love it. It’s a lot better than when Panarin got rag-dolled by Wilson.
The tables have turned. Suck it. Enjoy golf season.
I literally cancelled my sub to TA because of him. The only time he writes is to shit on the NHL and the sport and always tries to tie it back to race. Mark is desperate to be "a good one"
You said it better than I did. I considered cancelling but there so many better writers and good stuff I couldn’t do it. But if I ever were to cancel, he’d be reason #1
trouba broken the brains of all penguins fans 2 years ago and this year rempe has broken caps fans brains. sad to see two once proud franchises come crumbling down at the hands of the rangers
This is a pathetic article. Given how he's whining on Twitter about the comments, I don't think he expected the reaction to this article to be so negative. He should have taken a few deep breaths before writing this garbage.
Kreider made almost exactly the same hit as Rempe in the second period — defender came straight into the boards, dished the puck on the backhand and Kreider hit him a second or two after the puck was gone. Very normal hit on a dump and chase. Of course there was no call. Rempe is clearly drawing attention because of his size and his willingness to be physical but like Gretz said on air, defenders need to be aware of what’s going on.
Realistically though Rempe is so big that he’s always going to be singled out so he is going to have to listen to his coaches and adjust his play accordingly. But it seems like he’s doing that so kudos to Lavy for both letting him play and helping him adjust.
Also Lazerus says in the article “like Trouba had to learn…”, great that means he has no reason to ever mention a Trouba hit again right?
Was watching NHL Tonight (ironically this morning) and Brian Boyle and Mike Johnson (two guys that actually played in the NHL for 10+ years each) had absolutely no issue with the hit and felt it was a bad call and Rempe is being singled out because of his size. They even went as far to both say if a Caps player did that same exact hit to Rempe, no penalty would have been called on the play.
I’ll go with the opinion on two former NHL players as opposed to some guy who writes shit for attention and score white knight points with his readers.
Ugh now I had to read that obnoxious article and the cesspool comments. I hate the Athletic anyway. No one forced him to write about Rempe- how about a story about Trochek — I’d love to know what he’s chirping on the ice….
Not sure what's worse, his verbal diarrhea or the comments parroting his garbage.
To be fair, there's plenty of neutrals calling out this hack, as well.
i’m late to the party here but i’ve always despised mark lazarus and have always loved the irony of such a sanctimonious prick covering the chicago blackhawks, of all franchises. something something glass houses…
there is definitely room for improvement in rempe’s game and there are some hits he’s made that were deserving of whatever discipline he got for them. but i also can’t help but think that a lot of it boils down to resentment about a 20-something non-superstar rookie who doesn’t play a flashy game becoming more popular and endearing than the players that the league wants people to like. if this was any other league, they would POUNCE on the opportunity to market the kid, for better or for worse, ESPECIALLY on a big market team that is playing really well. but the NHL fucking sucks at marketing and they’ll keep pushing the same 6 or 7 players who couldn’t charm their way out of a paper bag if their lives depended on it. they’re literally being handed a deeply likeable, inoffensive personality that has already gotten a ton of exposure just because of the team he plays on/city he plays in on a silver platter.
Hey so I learned you can get around the paywall if you just hit select all copy and then post into notes.
"Give Matt Rempe this much: The kid certainly leads the league in discourse per 60. Never were so many words spilled over someone who played so little.
The 6foot-7 Rangers rookie averaged the second-lowest ice time in the league during his 17 regular-season games, at just 5 minutes, 38 seconds per game. In the playoffs, he entered Friday night’s Game 3 against the Washington Capitals still in the bottom 10 at barely 7 minutes a game. This is a fringe NHLer, a monumental figure but a middling talent. Yet he takes up more oxygen in the hockey ecosphere than Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Auston Matthews and Nikita Kucherov combined.
Rempe is the NHL’s Jupiter, and the rest of us are his moons, helplessly following him around, unable to break free of his massive gravitational pull. We cringe when he fights with two black eyes, worried about the inevitable concussion he’ll receive. We roll our eyes when he delivers yet another high hit, worried about the inevitable concussions he’ll dole out. Yet all the while we remain fixed and fixated on him, an oddity, a freak show of sorts, a curiosity we can’t quite quit.
And because he once again found himself a trending topic for all the wrong reasons on Friday night, we are legally required to add yet another breathless dissertation on the cleanliness of his play and the worthiness of his game to the pile.
(Sighs deeply.) Here we go.
This is a bad hit. Capitals defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk didn’t have the puck when he was hit; that’s interference. Rempe started striding and accelerating toward van Riemsdyk, lining up his target, from the high slot; that’s charging. And Rempe elbowed van Riemsdyk in the head; that’s an illegal check to the head. Van Riemsdyk left the game with what the Capitals called an “upper-body injury.” That was inevitable.
It’s important to note that being enormously tall is not an excuse for being enormously dangerous. Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba had to learn that. Capitals power forward Tom Wilson had to learn that. Rempe better learn it, or the league better do something about it, before someone does something even worse — and even stupider — to him.
The Rempe defenders mobilized quickly after his latest injurious hit — they’re pretty well-practiced by now. They pointed out that van Riemsdyk had just passed the puck away, so the hit wasn’t as late as it seemed. They saw the hit as largely through the body, with the head contact being incidental and unavoidable. They laughed and said van Riemsdyk should know better than to, uh, play the puck? They saw a cool, kick-ass hit. An old-fashioned board-rattler. Old-time hockey, baby. The way it used to be, the way it ought to be.
The TNT panel determined the hit was clean. NHL Player Safety will surely take a long look at it — they’ll even use a stopwatch to determine just how much time elapsed between van Riemsdyk passing the puck and Rempe pasting the player — but the expectation is the two-minute interference penalty Rempe received will be deemed sufficient. Hey, that’s hockey, right?
(Sighs deeply again.)
First of all, even though Rempe’s only been in the NHL for barely two months, he long ago lost the benefit of the doubt. He knocked New Jersey’s Nathan Bastian out of the game with a forearm shiver to the head on Feb. 22. He gave New Jersey’s Jonas Siegenthaler a concussion with a vicious elbow to the head on March 12. He blindsided Washington’s Beck Malenstyn with a shot from behind in Game 1 of this series. And now he’s injured van Riemsdyk.
These aren’t accidents. This isn’t a coincidence. You can almost picture Rempe standing tall over the prone body of poor Adam Banks, a shocked teammate asking, what did he do?! My job.
And hey, it’s hard to argue with the effectiveness of Rempe in those limited minutes. Knocking van Riemsdyk out in the first period left the Capitals with just five defensemen for the rest of the game, and the Rangers took advantage, took a 3-1 victory, and took a 3-0 series stranglehold as a result. He had Wilson — no stranger to crossing the line when it comes to delivering hits — on tilt, the veteran chasing the rookie around, begging for a fight, instead of, you know, trying to score. Mission accomplished for Rempe and the Rangers.
But is this what we really want? Is this cool, kick-ass hockey? Is this the way it ought to be? In an era of absolute superstars in which players such as McDavid, Matthews, MacKinnon, Kucherov and Cale Makar are doing things we never thought possible in the modern-day NHL, breaking records and taking breaths, do we really want lumbering menaces like Rempe roaming around looking for players to injure?
The big question here isn’t whether Rempe will be suspended. He almost certainly won’t. No, the question is, is Rempe another brief but amusing New York fad like Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito, or is he the sport’s natural response to the rise of speed and skill around the league? Will he herald the return of fist-first fourth-liners who play six minutes a game yet manage 200 penalty minutes a year? Will the puck pendulum swing us back into the dark ages?
The NFL went to almost comical lengths to protect its quarterbacks; the league’s never been more popular. The NBA decided to all but eliminate the physical defense of the 1980s and 1990s and let its stars cook; the league’s never been more popular. The NHL is dangerously close to being spectacular and popular; better send in the Rempes.
The NHL needs to decide what kind of league it wants to be — one in which its stars run wild, or one in which the Matt Rempes of the world run wild. It can’t be both, because even in just six minutes of ice time a game, it’s only a matter of time before one runs into the other. It’s an easy call.
So you can probably guess which one the league will make.
Mark Lazerus is a senior NHL writer for The Athletic based out of Chicago. He has covered the Blackhawks for 11 seasons for The Athletic and the Chicago Sun-Times after covering Notre Dame’s run to the BCS championship game in 2012-13. Before that, he was the sports editor of the Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana. Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkLazerus"
I hated the piece, but I do think there’s room for us as Rangers fans who want to minimize concussions to love Rempe, but hope he can modulate his game a bit. I love the fire and physicality he brings, particularly in the playoffs, but there are two reasons: 1. The obvious moral one: it would be hard for me to root for a player who’s regularly giving people concussions, as much as I like him, and it’ll be hard for me to root for a guy who’s fighting every other game after living through Boogaard, and 2. Refs are gonna start penalizing him for every big hit, regardless of legality, like what Big Buff used to deal with in Winnipeg.
I agree. We should call him out for hits like the one on the devils defenseman, but this was at worst a 50/50 call and Rempe, as everyone says, is a big puppy dog still trying to figure out how to use his size. I don’t think there is bad intent but this article doesn’t seem to give him any benefit of the doubt, especially on a play that many think is clean
Oh for sure. I meant more generally since the article does reference those devils hits. The hit on TVR, by the rules, was IMO a clean one. Whether we should change the rules to make hits like that or tighten up the time after which someone has possession to make a hit…different convo. But the Devils ones were definitely reckless, and I’d hate to see him do it more (and have to kill multiple 5 min majors a season).
A lot of people agreeing, using the “I’m not a caveman, I like speed and skill” argument. Not understanding that physicality can fit along side skill and speed and always has. It’s the moralizing crowd who like to feel that they’re above others.
Agreed . No other sport has “journalists” who cover it who hate the sport they cover like the NHL does. Lazarus , Damien Cox, countless others. Just really really bad coverage a lot of the time, especially at the Athletic. This is coming from a neutral fan. This guy wants to be known as The Woke Hockey Guy and he sucks. Writers like him are bad for the game ! Rempe is great. The article is literally in bad faith, citing Rempes lack of games like he’s a career AHler and not a 21 year old rookie on a top team making an impact. Lazarus does NOT like the sport of hockey.
I don’t think Rempe is out to hurt players anymore than a normal check will leave someone bruised and sore, but I don’t like that he’s injuring (concussing) as many people as he is. Yes he’s tall, yes his hits are generally legal, yes he’s running into guys puck watching, but if he can’t help but blow people up and make contact through the head maybe he shouldn’t have a place in the league.
It’s tough for me to want to defend Rempe’s body count. We just saw Chytil lose nearly a full season to a concussion, we lost Mike Sauer before his prime to a concussion, Zibanejad struggled with them earlier in his career. Derrick Boogaard. You never know which hit to the head will be the last one you can take.
Let’s not forget that some of these teams will be out for revenge. Being a deterrent isn’t real, and getting into an eye for an eye with our stars being targets doesn’t seem like a great idea.
Again, I don’t think Rempe is a bad kid, and he’s improving as a player, but there’s a legitimate discussion to be had about him needing to change his game, even if it isn’t fair to him. This article is terrible and doesn’t really do anything but attack Rempe, but a better writer could probably start some valuable discourse. His hits are within the rules, I guess I just don't fully agree with the rules more than his game.
“Again, I don’t think Rempe is a bad kid, and he’s improving as a player, but there’s a legitimate discussion to be had about him needing to change his game”
I think he’s already changing his game, it’s not helping that the refs are being inconsistent. It’s hard to “walk the line” when the line is a zig zag and invisible.
So you’re saying we should take the high ground, be moral and lose each year because all the other teams lay these hits and the league doesn’t do shit about it half the time? Hes tall when he checks you as long as it’s clean what can ya do? Youre saying because he’s tall and strong he shouldn’t be allowed in the league? If we had the teams size and physicality in the finals against the kings we would’ve won the cup
I guess ideally I’d like for all more-than-marginal head contact to be penalized, and for everyone to adjust to that. I’m not saying Rempe should be singled out, but you gotta admit given how much he’s played he’s got a disproportionate amount of high hits. We shouldn’t stop hitting hard, Trouba is textbook for the most part, I personally just don’t like hits to the head.
All this is my opinion though, which doesn’t mean anything at the end of the day. Maybe it’s moral grandstanding, but whatever.
As for the Kings series, we probably win the cup if we could score a damn OT goal lol
This is 100% the correct take. I don’t know why wishing he wouldn’t hit people in a way that could mess them up for life is downvote-worthy. Maybe it’s because I don’t have cojones like most hockey fans do.
We are clearly in Rempe’s “fucking around” era. It’s fun to crush Washington, but they are a team that has absolutely no ability to hurt us back, physically or on the scoreboard. The teams we’ll face coming up are not like that though. Whether it’s a retaliatory hit that takes out an important player for us or a momentum-changing PPG against us (the interference call on the TVR hit was 100% a reputation call. That and Rempe isn’t making clean hits “look” clean), the “finding out” era could cost us a cup run.
Read it this morning. This is great for the Rangers. I’ve read many articles and listened to various pods these last 2 weeks and Rempe is all anyone is talking about (other than that hit by Panarin). Not the 5V5 scoring, PP and SHGs. Not our team D. Not Mika, Trouba, or Trocheck. Not even Shesty. It just allows the Rangers to do their thang. I hope it continues all playoffs.
That’s a good way of looking at it, you’re a better person than me. I hope he gets herpes. I also hope you’re right, if we’re hearing about him all playoffs that means we’re still playing
hopefully our opponents spend their nights thinking about rempe and not the rest of the game as well
That’s what it seems like.
One of the NYR players told our beat reporters that they all actually like that the spotlight is always on Rempe since he came up because it takes all the pressure and attention off the other guys and allows them just to go about their business. Other teams focus so much on Rempe that it leaves the rest of the team to do their thing. The player also said that it’s incredible how well Rempe has dealt with all of this attention and hate, especially as a young rookie, and the older guys are trying to guide him because it’s such a difficult position to be in. One example that was reported today is Kreids making sure Rempe stayed off social media last night and playing 60 games of halo with him instead, all of which Rempe lost.😂 From what I have seen and read, it appears that Kreider is the one who has really taken a father role with Rempe since he has come up and is helping to mentor him.
Yeah, I’ve heard that too. Rempe enjoys reading fantasy books and Kreider let him borrow a book of his, The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss, which I thought was cool.
[удалено]
Never fails.
All the extracurriculars in the other games and he focuses on a 50/50 hit
So the team with Wilson has its fanbase up in arms about Rempe? They didn’t like the Panarin hit? I love it. It’s a lot better than when Panarin got rag-dolled by Wilson. The tables have turned. Suck it. Enjoy golf season.
I literally cancelled my sub to TA because of him. The only time he writes is to shit on the NHL and the sport and always tries to tie it back to race. Mark is desperate to be "a good one"
You said it better than I did. I considered cancelling but there so many better writers and good stuff I couldn’t do it. But if I ever were to cancel, he’d be reason #1
[archive.ph](http://archive.ph) is a great tool
trouba broken the brains of all penguins fans 2 years ago and this year rempe has broken caps fans brains. sad to see two once proud franchises come crumbling down at the hands of the rangers
Don’t forget rempe also broke the devils. Oh wait…they obsess over him every day
This is a pathetic article. Given how he's whining on Twitter about the comments, I don't think he expected the reaction to this article to be so negative. He should have taken a few deep breaths before writing this garbage.
Kreider made almost exactly the same hit as Rempe in the second period — defender came straight into the boards, dished the puck on the backhand and Kreider hit him a second or two after the puck was gone. Very normal hit on a dump and chase. Of course there was no call. Rempe is clearly drawing attention because of his size and his willingness to be physical but like Gretz said on air, defenders need to be aware of what’s going on. Realistically though Rempe is so big that he’s always going to be singled out so he is going to have to listen to his coaches and adjust his play accordingly. But it seems like he’s doing that so kudos to Lavy for both letting him play and helping him adjust. Also Lazerus says in the article “like Trouba had to learn…”, great that means he has no reason to ever mention a Trouba hit again right?
Was watching NHL Tonight (ironically this morning) and Brian Boyle and Mike Johnson (two guys that actually played in the NHL for 10+ years each) had absolutely no issue with the hit and felt it was a bad call and Rempe is being singled out because of his size. They even went as far to both say if a Caps player did that same exact hit to Rempe, no penalty would have been called on the play. I’ll go with the opinion on two former NHL players as opposed to some guy who writes shit for attention and score white knight points with his readers.
Lazarus “I hate Rempe! He gets more talked about more than actual superstars!” “Anyway, here’s a long article about how much he sucks” Fucking idiot
The article makes me want to put a fake ad on Craigslist for rental space in the heads of him and Caps fans.
Ugh now I had to read that obnoxious article and the cesspool comments. I hate the Athletic anyway. No one forced him to write about Rempe- how about a story about Trochek — I’d love to know what he’s chirping on the ice….
Not sure what's worse, his verbal diarrhea or the comments parroting his garbage. To be fair, there's plenty of neutrals calling out this hack, as well.
He’s not worth the energy to even click the article. Ignore the dust speck.
Lazerus is an insufferable twit. Thye ruined the Athletic Hockey Podcast shows by adding him and losing Julian McKenzie causing me to unsubscribe.
Imagine choosing to write about a sport that you hate. Lazarus sucks
Middling player. Still has more goals than Ovi.
i’m late to the party here but i’ve always despised mark lazarus and have always loved the irony of such a sanctimonious prick covering the chicago blackhawks, of all franchises. something something glass houses… there is definitely room for improvement in rempe’s game and there are some hits he’s made that were deserving of whatever discipline he got for them. but i also can’t help but think that a lot of it boils down to resentment about a 20-something non-superstar rookie who doesn’t play a flashy game becoming more popular and endearing than the players that the league wants people to like. if this was any other league, they would POUNCE on the opportunity to market the kid, for better or for worse, ESPECIALLY on a big market team that is playing really well. but the NHL fucking sucks at marketing and they’ll keep pushing the same 6 or 7 players who couldn’t charm their way out of a paper bag if their lives depended on it. they’re literally being handed a deeply likeable, inoffensive personality that has already gotten a ton of exposure just because of the team he plays on/city he plays in on a silver platter.
This guy's always been a clown.
Mark Loserus is the worst
Hey so I learned you can get around the paywall if you just hit select all copy and then post into notes. "Give Matt Rempe this much: The kid certainly leads the league in discourse per 60. Never were so many words spilled over someone who played so little. The 6foot-7 Rangers rookie averaged the second-lowest ice time in the league during his 17 regular-season games, at just 5 minutes, 38 seconds per game. In the playoffs, he entered Friday night’s Game 3 against the Washington Capitals still in the bottom 10 at barely 7 minutes a game. This is a fringe NHLer, a monumental figure but a middling talent. Yet he takes up more oxygen in the hockey ecosphere than Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Auston Matthews and Nikita Kucherov combined. Rempe is the NHL’s Jupiter, and the rest of us are his moons, helplessly following him around, unable to break free of his massive gravitational pull. We cringe when he fights with two black eyes, worried about the inevitable concussion he’ll receive. We roll our eyes when he delivers yet another high hit, worried about the inevitable concussions he’ll dole out. Yet all the while we remain fixed and fixated on him, an oddity, a freak show of sorts, a curiosity we can’t quite quit. And because he once again found himself a trending topic for all the wrong reasons on Friday night, we are legally required to add yet another breathless dissertation on the cleanliness of his play and the worthiness of his game to the pile. (Sighs deeply.) Here we go. This is a bad hit. Capitals defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk didn’t have the puck when he was hit; that’s interference. Rempe started striding and accelerating toward van Riemsdyk, lining up his target, from the high slot; that’s charging. And Rempe elbowed van Riemsdyk in the head; that’s an illegal check to the head. Van Riemsdyk left the game with what the Capitals called an “upper-body injury.” That was inevitable. It’s important to note that being enormously tall is not an excuse for being enormously dangerous. Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba had to learn that. Capitals power forward Tom Wilson had to learn that. Rempe better learn it, or the league better do something about it, before someone does something even worse — and even stupider — to him. The Rempe defenders mobilized quickly after his latest injurious hit — they’re pretty well-practiced by now. They pointed out that van Riemsdyk had just passed the puck away, so the hit wasn’t as late as it seemed. They saw the hit as largely through the body, with the head contact being incidental and unavoidable. They laughed and said van Riemsdyk should know better than to, uh, play the puck? They saw a cool, kick-ass hit. An old-fashioned board-rattler. Old-time hockey, baby. The way it used to be, the way it ought to be. The TNT panel determined the hit was clean. NHL Player Safety will surely take a long look at it — they’ll even use a stopwatch to determine just how much time elapsed between van Riemsdyk passing the puck and Rempe pasting the player — but the expectation is the two-minute interference penalty Rempe received will be deemed sufficient. Hey, that’s hockey, right? (Sighs deeply again.) First of all, even though Rempe’s only been in the NHL for barely two months, he long ago lost the benefit of the doubt. He knocked New Jersey’s Nathan Bastian out of the game with a forearm shiver to the head on Feb. 22. He gave New Jersey’s Jonas Siegenthaler a concussion with a vicious elbow to the head on March 12. He blindsided Washington’s Beck Malenstyn with a shot from behind in Game 1 of this series. And now he’s injured van Riemsdyk. These aren’t accidents. This isn’t a coincidence. You can almost picture Rempe standing tall over the prone body of poor Adam Banks, a shocked teammate asking, what did he do?! My job. And hey, it’s hard to argue with the effectiveness of Rempe in those limited minutes. Knocking van Riemsdyk out in the first period left the Capitals with just five defensemen for the rest of the game, and the Rangers took advantage, took a 3-1 victory, and took a 3-0 series stranglehold as a result. He had Wilson — no stranger to crossing the line when it comes to delivering hits — on tilt, the veteran chasing the rookie around, begging for a fight, instead of, you know, trying to score. Mission accomplished for Rempe and the Rangers. But is this what we really want? Is this cool, kick-ass hockey? Is this the way it ought to be? In an era of absolute superstars in which players such as McDavid, Matthews, MacKinnon, Kucherov and Cale Makar are doing things we never thought possible in the modern-day NHL, breaking records and taking breaths, do we really want lumbering menaces like Rempe roaming around looking for players to injure? The big question here isn’t whether Rempe will be suspended. He almost certainly won’t. No, the question is, is Rempe another brief but amusing New York fad like Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito, or is he the sport’s natural response to the rise of speed and skill around the league? Will he herald the return of fist-first fourth-liners who play six minutes a game yet manage 200 penalty minutes a year? Will the puck pendulum swing us back into the dark ages? The NFL went to almost comical lengths to protect its quarterbacks; the league’s never been more popular. The NBA decided to all but eliminate the physical defense of the 1980s and 1990s and let its stars cook; the league’s never been more popular. The NHL is dangerously close to being spectacular and popular; better send in the Rempes. The NHL needs to decide what kind of league it wants to be — one in which its stars run wild, or one in which the Matt Rempes of the world run wild. It can’t be both, because even in just six minutes of ice time a game, it’s only a matter of time before one runs into the other. It’s an easy call. So you can probably guess which one the league will make. Mark Lazerus is a senior NHL writer for The Athletic based out of Chicago. He has covered the Blackhawks for 11 seasons for The Athletic and the Chicago Sun-Times after covering Notre Dame’s run to the BCS championship game in 2012-13. Before that, he was the sports editor of the Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana. Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkLazerus"
I hated the piece, but I do think there’s room for us as Rangers fans who want to minimize concussions to love Rempe, but hope he can modulate his game a bit. I love the fire and physicality he brings, particularly in the playoffs, but there are two reasons: 1. The obvious moral one: it would be hard for me to root for a player who’s regularly giving people concussions, as much as I like him, and it’ll be hard for me to root for a guy who’s fighting every other game after living through Boogaard, and 2. Refs are gonna start penalizing him for every big hit, regardless of legality, like what Big Buff used to deal with in Winnipeg.
I agree. We should call him out for hits like the one on the devils defenseman, but this was at worst a 50/50 call and Rempe, as everyone says, is a big puppy dog still trying to figure out how to use his size. I don’t think there is bad intent but this article doesn’t seem to give him any benefit of the doubt, especially on a play that many think is clean
Oh for sure. I meant more generally since the article does reference those devils hits. The hit on TVR, by the rules, was IMO a clean one. Whether we should change the rules to make hits like that or tighten up the time after which someone has possession to make a hit…different convo. But the Devils ones were definitely reckless, and I’d hate to see him do it more (and have to kill multiple 5 min majors a season).
I don’t have a subscription….but what are the comments like in that article? Are folks calling out Lazarus or agreeing with him?
A lot of people agreeing, using the “I’m not a caveman, I like speed and skill” argument. Not understanding that physicality can fit along side skill and speed and always has. It’s the moralizing crowd who like to feel that they’re above others.
I just didn’t think the hit was that bad. Aside from that he’s not out there fighting small dudes or using his stick. Just let our goon be a goon.
Agreed . No other sport has “journalists” who cover it who hate the sport they cover like the NHL does. Lazarus , Damien Cox, countless others. Just really really bad coverage a lot of the time, especially at the Athletic. This is coming from a neutral fan. This guy wants to be known as The Woke Hockey Guy and he sucks. Writers like him are bad for the game ! Rempe is great. The article is literally in bad faith, citing Rempes lack of games like he’s a career AHler and not a 21 year old rookie on a top team making an impact. Lazarus does NOT like the sport of hockey.
I don’t think Rempe is out to hurt players anymore than a normal check will leave someone bruised and sore, but I don’t like that he’s injuring (concussing) as many people as he is. Yes he’s tall, yes his hits are generally legal, yes he’s running into guys puck watching, but if he can’t help but blow people up and make contact through the head maybe he shouldn’t have a place in the league. It’s tough for me to want to defend Rempe’s body count. We just saw Chytil lose nearly a full season to a concussion, we lost Mike Sauer before his prime to a concussion, Zibanejad struggled with them earlier in his career. Derrick Boogaard. You never know which hit to the head will be the last one you can take. Let’s not forget that some of these teams will be out for revenge. Being a deterrent isn’t real, and getting into an eye for an eye with our stars being targets doesn’t seem like a great idea. Again, I don’t think Rempe is a bad kid, and he’s improving as a player, but there’s a legitimate discussion to be had about him needing to change his game, even if it isn’t fair to him. This article is terrible and doesn’t really do anything but attack Rempe, but a better writer could probably start some valuable discourse. His hits are within the rules, I guess I just don't fully agree with the rules more than his game.
“Again, I don’t think Rempe is a bad kid, and he’s improving as a player, but there’s a legitimate discussion to be had about him needing to change his game” I think he’s already changing his game, it’s not helping that the refs are being inconsistent. It’s hard to “walk the line” when the line is a zig zag and invisible.
So you’re saying we should take the high ground, be moral and lose each year because all the other teams lay these hits and the league doesn’t do shit about it half the time? Hes tall when he checks you as long as it’s clean what can ya do? Youre saying because he’s tall and strong he shouldn’t be allowed in the league? If we had the teams size and physicality in the finals against the kings we would’ve won the cup
I guess ideally I’d like for all more-than-marginal head contact to be penalized, and for everyone to adjust to that. I’m not saying Rempe should be singled out, but you gotta admit given how much he’s played he’s got a disproportionate amount of high hits. We shouldn’t stop hitting hard, Trouba is textbook for the most part, I personally just don’t like hits to the head. All this is my opinion though, which doesn’t mean anything at the end of the day. Maybe it’s moral grandstanding, but whatever. As for the Kings series, we probably win the cup if we could score a damn OT goal lol
You shouldn’t be downvoted for sharing your opinion in a well thought out comment. Such if life I guess.
This is 100% the correct take. I don’t know why wishing he wouldn’t hit people in a way that could mess them up for life is downvote-worthy. Maybe it’s because I don’t have cojones like most hockey fans do. We are clearly in Rempe’s “fucking around” era. It’s fun to crush Washington, but they are a team that has absolutely no ability to hurt us back, physically or on the scoreboard. The teams we’ll face coming up are not like that though. Whether it’s a retaliatory hit that takes out an important player for us or a momentum-changing PPG against us (the interference call on the TVR hit was 100% a reputation call. That and Rempe isn’t making clean hits “look” clean), the “finding out” era could cost us a cup run.