The Matt Rempe Show returned to NHL ice over the weekend. And while there was no rematch with Matheiu Olivier when the Columbus Blue Jackets visited the Garden on February 28, the hockey world got what it was waiting for on Saturday night when Rempe fought Toronto Maple Leafs tough guy Ryan Reaves at the ScotiaBank Arena in the third period of what would become a 4-3 victory for Toronto in the shootout.
There was really no way this confrontation was going to be avoided. Reaves is the reigning NHL enforcer and needed to challenge the usurper. Toronto is the center of the hockey universe and the game was on in prime time on Hockey Night in Canada.
While I’m still concerned about Rempe’s future in the game — he’s got five fighting majors in seven NHL games and still has more time in the penalty box than on the ice — there are indications that he’s listening and learning. Before he fought Reaves, he turned to the bench to get an all clear from the coaching staff, this after ignoring Reaves for most of the game. Better still, during the fight, he seemed to listen to old pros like John Scott who advised Rempe to use his superior reach to hold smaller, but vicious opponents like Reaves at bay.
As for his impact on the ice, it’s easy to see how Rempe’s physical play can change a game. Case in point: this hit on Toronto’s Ilya Lyubushkin.
Unlike the hit he delivered to New Jersey Devils winger Nathan Bastian, this time Rempe wasn’t penalized. If he can keep delivering clean, but devastating hits like these while working on his game down low in the offensive zone, Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette might have to find the kid a spot on New York’s postseason roster.
Mark your calendars, the next chance to see Rempe is tonight vs. the Florida Panthers. These are two of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, and while they can’t meet any sooner in the playoffs than the Eastern Conference Finals, these are two points that matter as they could determine home ice advantage in that series. That means Rempe, and likely dance partner Jonah Gadjovich, have a reason to keep it peaceful. Then again, that’s what I thought about a potential clash with Reaves as well.
I guess we’ll just have to watch.
When we last checked in with the Washington Capitals, it was to assess their playoff prospects in light of the fact that center Evgeny Kuznetsov was leaving the team to enter the NHL’s Player Assistance Program, presumably to combat an undisclosed addiction. On Saturday, Kuznetsov was cleared to return to team activities. After conferencing with the player and his agent, a conversation where Kuznetsov expressed a desire to leave the team and start fresh somewhere else, Washington General Manager Brian MacLellan opted to place Kuznetsov on waivers. After all of the NHL’s other 31 teams failed to put in a claim for him and his $7.8 million contract, the team loaned Kuznetsov to its AHL affiliate in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
It’s hard to think of a more humiliating end to Kuznetsov’s 10+ seasons with the Capitals. The franchise has always been short on elite playmakers like Kuznetsov, and he’ll always be remembered for the 2018 Stanley Cup run where he scored what is arguably the more important goal in franchise history, the one that dispatched the hated Pittsburgh Penguins in overtime of Game Six of their second round playoff series. And while Alexander Ovechkin won the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP, anyone who watched that year knows that Kuznetsov was just as deserving of the award, perhaps even more so than Ovechkin.
Kuznetsov has been asking out of Washington for some time, but in the era of the salary cap, moving him and his $7.8 million price tag has proved impossible, especially as his on-ice performance has degraded since that Stanley Cup victory. The act of putting him on waivers is a reality check for Kuznetsov, underlining the fact that the Capitals can’t get any return on him in the trade market, as nobody is willing to take a chance on a player on the wrong side of 30 even if it only means assuming the remaining time on his contract, which will expire at the end of the 2024-25 season.
The ball is now in Kuznetsov’s court. If he doesn’t report to the Hershey Bears, he’ll likely be suspended and won’t get paid. The upshot here is simple, if Kuznetsov wants out, he’ll have to negotiate a buyout on the remaining time on his contract, thought to be the largest in league history for a player at the AHL level.
If this seems like rough justice, you shouldn’t be surprised. Any chance the Capitals had of returning to the playoffs and igniting the play of Ovechkin rested on a revival in Kuznetsov’s game. While at some level this is simply a business transaction, I’m sure that inside the Capitals organization, there are more than a few people who believe that Kuznetsov has let the Capitals down, even in light of the possibility that he may be struggling with a life-altering addiction.
If Kuznetsov wants to get back to playing in the NHL as soon as possible, and after this wake-up call I’m guessing he will, he ought to report to Hershey and get to work rehabilitating his on-ice reputation. There will be time enough in the offseason to negotiate a buy-out with the Capitals, and while he probably won’t like riding the bus in the minors, experiencing a little adversity might go a long way toward convincing another NHL team to take a chance on him in time for next season.
As for the Capitals, it looks like the team will have to be sellers at the trade deadline for the second year in a row after losing to the lowly Arizona Coyotes, 5-2, on Sunday. That loss seemed to derail any momentum the team had recently built to return to playoff contention. The Capitals have a number of assets they could move, but what they exactly move them for could be interesting. More on that later this week.