If the Lightning face the Rangers again this season, they better have a couple of psychopaths on their roster or in Syracuse because Point and Kucherov will be on Rempe's radar for annihilation. He didn't play last night, but Point with a hattie and 3 assists and Kuch 1/4 can't be allowed to live after that night.
Rempe averages 5:39 minutes. I’m skeptical the Rags’ 4th line gets any time against Tampa’s top line.
And then Rempe has to actually successfully check players who’re way more faster and agile than him.
Look at Rempe’s signature big hits.
He hit a 2nd pair defense defenseman, Lybushkin, when he wasn’t expecting it.
He didn’t expect it because he was still in the corner by the boards, after just dumping the puck out of the DZ, and didn’t expect Rempe to race over like a lunatic to check him before he started skating.
So he wasn’t a moving target. Not sure that it should’ve gotten anything more than 2 for charging though.
Then Rempe took advantage of Bastian being bent over by the boards, and barely moving, with another Ranger behind him.
And Siegenthaler was, of course, next to the boards, slowing down and dumping the puck.
Siegenthaler actually saw Rempe and held up though, so Rempe was going to miss him with his body check. He only managed to hit Sieg because he stuck his elbow way way out.
I’m only going in all this detail in order to point out that Rempe is a menace with these questionable board hits, when he manages to line them up, but that’s it, because he’s 4th liner who barely plays and isn’t good at checking.
Rempe is going to try to line these victims up when he can because he’s in the line-up “to be physical”. He’ll take any opportunity that presents itself, aka a slow/stopped opponent by the boards handling the puck, preferably distracted or in a vulnerable position. I don’t see how he’s capable of targeting specific players though.
Trouba averages 21:46, with 17:36 5v5, and he can successfully time open ice hits on moving opponents. That’s a real problem.
Trouba also can only take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves, but he plays against top players all game, and excels at checking.