NEW YORK (AP) — Matt Rempe kept jabbing away at Ryan Reaves not knowing his left thumb had already broken from getting tangled up in his combatant's jersey during their heavyweight fight.
“I just kept going bang, bang, bang, and I guess I was just kind of breaking it and breaking it,” Rempe said. “But when you’re in a fight, you don’t feel anything, so you had no idea.”
After he and Reaves told each other, “Good fight,” in the penalty boxes, Rempe looked down and realized something was very wrong. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, this thing’s not right,'” he recalled.
That was Oct. 23, and Rempe finally returned to the New York Rangers' 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
“When he’s in the lineup, he makes an impact,” Sullivan said. “He creates anxiety for our opponents. That’s 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.”
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.
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.
“That was bound to happen eventually, and it’s a part of the game,” Rempe said. “Just a couple months. The season’s long. It happens.”
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.
“Not at all,” Rempe said, acknowledging he's on the no-fight list for the time being. "I can’t for a little while because I can’t really bend it correctly yet. A couple more weeks and it’ll be golden, but I can’t for a little bit, which sucks, but it’s all right because you just go play hockey and stuff.”
Anaheim's Ross Johnston asked Rempe to fight in his return, but the circumstances made that not doable.
“He doesn’t know what’s up with the thumb and stuff, and he’s doing his job,” Rempe said. "I was like, ‘Hey I can’t go,’ and he understands that and he’s probably been there before.”
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.
“His conditioning is great,” Sullivan said. "He’s worked extremely hard to get himself in the position where his fitness level is really high.”
Rempe felt good about his nine minutes as he eases back in.
“I can’t 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," Rempe said. "It was a lot of fun being back after a long time.”
AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
FILE - New York Rangers center Matt Rempe skates during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Buffalo Sabres in Buffalo, N.Y., Oct. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus, File)
FILE - New York Rangers' Matt Rempe, right, fights with San Jose Sharks' Ryan Reaves (75) during the first period of an NHL hockey game in New York, Oct. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
