Matt Rempe came; he saw, and he was conquered. That sums up GM Chris Drury's bizarre hauling of The Skating Giraffe from AHL Hartford after two failed (minus-3) games in order to intimidate the Capitals last night in D.C. (As in Don't Cry, Blueshirts.) Yeah! Some intimidation – 5-3, Washington. Rough and Ready Rempe couldn't do it alone; and certainly did not. The result was an abject failure. 1. Rempe's early first period fight with Dylan McIlrath ended with Matt down and bleeding from the left cheek. 2. Any inspiration for Rempe's bout was dissipated by the shots on goal. Igor Shesterkin had to make 41 saves while Logan Thompson in the Caps crease needed only 16 stops. 3. Washington out-faced-off the Rangers, 61% to 33%,and the Blueshirts had 20 giveaways to the Caps 10. The entire point of Rempe's return was to neutralize the Capitals' two toughies, either Tom Wilson and/or McIllrath. "In the first period they (Washington) had much more pop," allowed coach Peter Laviolette. Yeah, like McIllrath popping Remper on the left cheek. It was hard to tell whether he meant McIllrath's punches or the Rangers overall play which left Washington leading 3-1 at the end of one. Not that The Remper didn't try hard. Having a two-inch advantage in reach and nine pounds in weight, Matt held his own in the slugfest until the Caps defenseman bloodied his foe and then took him down. The point here is not who won the fight but it's effect on the teams. Or, as Vincent Trocheck noted, "We didn't come out of the gates as hard as we wanted." (Suggestion: Buy better gates.) Stan Fischler talks about Matt Rempe. More disturbing, Rangers-wise, is that the club's successes so far mostly have been against Humpty teams who have failed to make the playoffs down in Dumptyville. If The Maven was the Blueshirts, I would have been dazzled yesterday by The New York Post's almost full-page headlined story, – RECALL OF DUTY – REMPE BACK WITH RANGERS AFTER BRIEF AHL STINT. Even I got excited over Mollie Walker's story because we're talking about a maybe-fourth-liner actually stealing the pre-game show. Rempe upstaging The Breadman is big stuff by me. You gotta love it! Unless your name happens to end with Laviolette!
