The four-game suspension the NHL imposed on Matt Rempe gave enough time for the purple and green bruises around his eyes to fade.
The mark disappeared in 5 out of 10 games. The face of a 21-year-old child remains.
The time away from the game also gave Rempe space to calm down from the chaos the 6-foot-8-1/2 forward has been involved in since making his NHL debut just a month ago.
“It’s just a learning experience,” Lempe said of his suspension for a high elbow hit on the Devils’ Jonas Siegenthaler. “I made a mistake, so I just have to learn from it and grow. I’m 21 years old, I still have a lot to learn. Watching the games, I learn a lot. I go to a lot of my seniors and learn from them. You can see what they are doing.
“I got a lot of great reps in practice and got to hone my skills and work on a lot of things. It was good. Of course I never want to get suspended, but I want to learn things and get better and grow. Masu.”
Lempe expressed regret for his actions that caused Siegenthaler to suffer a concussion and miss the next four games.
In response, George Parros, the league’s head of player safety, has effectively thrown the book at first-time offenders (technically, but not really).
Rempe’s next step is to continue learning how to hold the line. Don’t just play hard, play clean.
Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post
“It’s about having more control over your body, things like that,” he said of what he learned. “If a player is trying to get out of a hit, you have to be careful. It was an accident. I thought I was going to hit the wall. … I never want to see a guy get hurt or something like that. I plan to continue playing on super hard in the same way.
“Just making sure my hits are clean, like keeping everything compact, keeping everything tight. Nice. Just live and learn.”
There’s no question that Rempe’s elbow went up and hit Siegenthaler, but the rookie said he didn’t realize he made contact with the Devils defenseman.
Head coach Peter Laviolette also said after the fact that he thought Rempe was ready to hit a wall.
Still, Lempe recognized that the fact that his elbow was not properly locked in did not excuse it. He called it a mistake and apologized again for the whole development.
On March 11, there was an uproar in the Devils’ locker room after the Rangers, led by forward Curtis McDiarmid, won 3-1. That’s no surprise considering the fact that Lempe was the second Devils player to be knocked out of a game since Siegenthaler ran through Nathan Bastian in their last meeting on Feb. 22.
That night, McDiarmid openly challenged Lempe for the hit on Bastian, who had been sidelined since with a lower-body injury.
After Rempe refused and Siegenthaler took a hit, McDiarmid went after Rempe again, but the referee kept the two at a distance.
“My instructions were there,” Lempe said of McDiarmid’s refusal. “I received instructions before the game.”
On Wednesday, the Rangers signed Jaroslav Chimela to a three-year entry-level contract, the team announced.
Schmerall, the Blueshirts’ 144th overall pick in the 2021 draft, will leave Providence College midway through his second season to join the organization’s AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolfpack.
The 20-year-old forward has 12 goals and 16 assists in 59 career games with the Flyers. This season, Schmeral has five goals and 10 assists in 26 games.
It’s been an exciting few years for Šmeral, who scored three goals and provided two assists in seven games, helping the Czech Republic win silver at the 2023 World Junior Championships.
