Matt Martin was, in another life, Matt Lempe, about minus five inches.
When the Islanders Enforcer entered the league and played five games with the Islanders in the 2009-10 season, the Enforcer was still a player category on almost every team. That means Martin has fought twice in those five fights. And a year later, over a full season in the league, he’d done it 13 times.
So if anyone understands what’s going on with Rempe, the Rangers’ 6-foot-8 1/2-inch heavyweight champion, it’s the rookie in mid-February at MetLife Stadium in his first career rookie game. It might be Martin who fought with.
“He’s obviously trying to make his mark,” Martin told the Post ahead of Tuesday night’s Battle of New York update at UBS Arena. Rempe is expected to miss this game as a healthy scratch. “I think there’s definitely a line that we all try to walk in terms of being effective and efficient but also not costing the team. He’s a young kid. , will understand all those aspects. I’m sure his coaching staff is talking to him about it.
“But he’s obviously trying to put everything on the line to make a name for himself and stay in this league, which is what every kid dreams of. He’s an influence for them. But he still has to find that line and walk consistently and stay on the ice a little bit more.”
Since his first fight with Martin, Rempe has fought four more times, racked up 69 penalty minutes, and received a four-game suspension for elbowing Jonas Siegenthaler, after New Jersey granted an exception to his refusal to play. , causing a line brawl between the Rangers and Devils. elbow.
He has bounced in and out of the lineup while proving to be a potentially valuable asset for a team that doesn’t mind having an extra edge in the lineup.
But unlike 15 years ago, Rempe’s matches are under intense scrutiny in a league that has little to do with on-ice boxing.
Martin didn’t have to deal with it completely, but he remembers attending meetings and being told at every opportunity that it might be better not to fight.
“When you come into the league, you’re physical, you’re running around, you’re hitting everybody, everybody wants a piece of you, especially at that time,” he said. “I think he was probably the same way. When he was younger, he obviously fought more because he was trying to prove himself and make a name for himself. Now every game he’s like, ‘Oh, I have to fight tonight.’ I don’t often go into games thinking about it. But when I was younger, the rules were different, the game was different, and it felt like everyone was always fighting. And two, I was trying to establish myself.
“…I think I learned from my mistakes when I was younger, the line you have to walk. And I think he will, too. When you come out first and everyone chants your name and you get excited and you get emotional and I think there’s a bit of a learning curve when you’re running with energy. Sometimes you make mistakes and cross the line. I think as you get older you learn to balance those things out. ”
Rempe, 21, joins a dwindling pool of physically appealing players across the league. Martin, 34 and in the final year of his contract, has seen times change for him.
“I have to prove that I can play and I can work a regular shift,” Martin said. “I think it’s a gradual thing. [people] People generally stop fighting you because you don’t bring others to the table.
“If you look at the players that are in the league right now, even if [Toronto’s] Ryan Reeves example [Phildelphia’s Nic] Deslauriers, they play regular shifts, they play on the fourth line, they’re physical, they can fight. They don’t sit there for 59 minutes of the game and just fight. Like some of the players when I first came out. Some guys only played a minute or two tonight who were just there to have a heavyweight fight tonight. So the game has changed a lot. As players, we have to change with it or you guys will cease to exist. ”
Will Rempe be able to persist?
“He makes their fan base pretty good,” Martin said. “Hopefully for him, he’s just trying to carve out a career for himself. He just has to find that balancing act.”
