How Rangers’ Matt Rempe earned respect of rugged divisional foe last season

When the New York Rangers arrived in Columbus to visit the Blue Jackets on Feb. 25 last season, Matt Rempe had just completed his first week in the NHL. The towering rookie had already started to make a name for himself, though, in those first seven days and four games in the League. And Blue Jackets forward Mathieu Olivier was waiting for him at Nationwide Arena.

It’s well documented that Rempe and Olivier engaged in a first=period fight that night. In fact, Rempe took such a beating in that tilt that there were major concerns about his future because he was absorbing so much punishment in the early stages of his NHL career.

And Rempe did slow down his fighting pace after engaging in three fights over his first five games. He dropped the gloves two games later against Toronto Maple Leafs forward Ryan Reaves and then just once more last season, in the wild line brawl against the New Jersey Devils on April 3.

But with that fight in Columbus, Rempe earned the respect of Olivier. As Columbus forward Adam Fantilli told John Scott on the Drop the Gloves podcast this week, Olivier and Rempe fought only after discussing it during pregame warmups. Olivier wanted to first make sure Rempe was up to a fight because the kid had engaged in an absolutely wild tilt the day before against Philadelphia Flyers heavyweight Nic Deslauriers.

“I’m pretty sure Rempe fought the game before (Feb 24 in Philadelphia) and … we were playing them the next night or whatever, and ‘Olly’ was saying like ‘Listen man, if you need a night (to recover)’ … and I’m pretty sure the story goes that [Rempe] said, ‘No, we’ll go tonight,'” Fantilli recalled.

Just 2:12 into the first period, the fourth-liners found each other and the fight was on. It didn’t last long. Despite giving up at least six inches to Rempe, the 6-foot-1, 222-pound Blue Jackets forward landed more than a dozen right hands to the rookie’s head, many of them clean, hard blows. The quick domination ended when Olivier flung Rempe to the ice.

“‘Olly’ is one of the scariest human beings when he’s pissed off I’ve ever seen,” Fantilli explained. “He definitely got the best of Rempe in that fight. But he had so much respect for Rempe for actually going and dropping them two nights in a row.”

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Rangers young heavyweight earned respect of Blue Jackets’ Mathieu Olivier

Rempe had already fought Matt Martin of the Islanders outdoors at MetLife Stadium in his NHL debut, and racked up 15 penalty minutes, including a game misconduct, against the New Jersey Devils in his first three games. Then in a matinee against the Flyers on Feb. 24, Rempe scored his first NHL goal, the third-period game-winner, in a 2-1 victory. He also got into a doozy of a fight with Deslauriers.

The two heavyweights exchanged massive blows in a prolonged bout that left each combatant exhausted in the penalty box.

It was that fight, three minutes into the first period, that led Olivier to approach Rempe in warmups the next day and make sure the youngster was physically, and mentally, in a good place to fight again so soon after the Deslauriers battle.

“I just told him ‘Great tilt yesterday. Hope you’re doing alright’ because that was a tough one. And he said, ‘Yeah, I’m good.’ First shift he came in and asked me, so there’s a lot of respect there for doing that. Kudos to him,” Olivier said after that game. “For lack of a better word, that takes some balls.”

Encouraged by coach Peter Laviolette to fight less but continue to be a physical force in other ways, Rempe still has a ways to go to earn a regular spot in the Rangers lineup this season. He played 11 of the 16 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs last spring, scored the Rangers’ first postseason goal and was a solid contributor at both ends of the rink, in limited ice time. He did not have a single fight in the playoffs after totaling five in 17 regular-season games.

Rempe did take fighting lessons from former NHL enforcer Georges Laraque this summer. But that was just part of his overall effort to improve in every area of his game before training camp. The 23-year-old returned to the tri-state area in July and has been training with Chris Kreide r since.

“I feel like with every person you’re taking bits and pieces, learn here, learn here and take as much information as you can,” Rempe said at the Shoulder Check charity event in Connecticut earlier this summer. “All these people are being so great, trying to help me out. I’m honored to learn as much as I can.”

Honored to learn. And honored to gain the respect of opponents like Olivier.

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