Matt Lempe has been in this situation before.
Just over 10 months ago, in March, the 6-foot-8.5 forward was suspended, admitted he made a mistake with a high elbow hit on the Devils' Jonas Siegenthaler, and has grown from there. emphasized the need to .
It was more of a “learning experience” than anything else, he said at the time.
But when Lempe sat at his locker on Wednesday and talked about his eight-game suspension for the Dec. 20 hit of Miro Heiskanen (double the length of his suspension for a first offense), his tone was… It has changed.
He described himself as a “marked guy” in the NHL. He talked about picking his spot.
Lempe said he had discussions over the summer with George Palos, the league's director of player safety, about which balls are acceptable and which balls will cross the line.
If the first suspension was an opportunity for growth, this one sounded like a warning mixed with a sense of despair.
Rempe wasn't surprised the NHL forced him to play in eight games. Too many hits ended up in his “inbox,” he says.
And Rempe acknowledged that the new offense could lead to a “substantial suspension,” citing his physicality (which helped him carve out an out-of-the-box role in the first place and become a fan favorite since his debut last February). He was forced to face the difficult task of coming to terms with his strength. while preventing runaway behavior.
He will continue to need to maintain that balance.
“You don't have to take every hit, if that makes sense,” Lempe said after the Rangers practiced in Tarrytown before Thursday's game against New Jersey at the Garden. “For example, only make it if you know it's a clean hit and it's going to be a good hit. If you have any doubts, I feel like I'd err on the side of caution for now. Because, like I said,” , I’m a marked man now. ”
Lempe's second NHL season was defined by bouncing back and forth between the Rangers and AHL Hartford.
His big-bodied brilliance last year has faded from the spotlight, replaced by an inability to earn playing time.
Head coach Peter Laviolette included Lempe in the lineup just five times this season, recording just over 31 minutes of total ice time and 24 penalty minutes. Instead, Lempe will have to utilize the top-six role the Wolfpack has given him for most of the last two-plus months.
He accepted AHL time. After being called up by the Rangers before the Stars game in December, Lempe jumped at the chance to show off his progress, making three penalty kicks in the first period for Dallas.
However, that progress evaporated in the third period when he crushed Heiskanen along the boards, earning him five minutes of major time and the fourth ejection in his 22-game NHL career.
“I don't know if he's doing too much,” Laviolette said. “I think part of his game is physical… [getting suspended] It's not happening at the American Hockey League level, but it's happening here. So we're talking to him about playing a cleaner game. And even before that happened, we talked more about it, exactly how he needs to play. But he also needs to make sure he brings his game. ”
Reflecting on what happened, Lempe said, “It wasn't a good hit.” He had no intention of hurting Heiskanen and, like March, described it as a learning experience.
Development continues, which he is pleased with, but with the threat of longer suspensions looming with each hit, he hopes it becomes just a “dead end”.
Rempe will first need to break down the Rangers' lineup again. And in that case, if Rempe returns to the ice Thursday or Saturday or any other game down the road in his career, he will know he needs to be careful.
To become smarter. This is difficult considering his size, especially in the neutral zone where he was unable to capture even a part of his opponent's body when he tried to get out of the way.
If not, Lempe predicted, “then we'll lose another 20 games.”
“I want to be the most physical guy in the world,” Lempe said. You can't do that. ”
