I am looking at head coach Peter Laviolette’s lineup card for Monday’s Garden match against the Red Wings, and I have become 12-year-old Josh Baskin at the meeting in which a line of robot-transformer toys are under discussion.
I don’t get it.
I don’t get it.
I don’t get why Big Matt Rempe is a healthy scratch for this game after getting seven shifts worth a sum of 3:40 in Saturday night’s 6-5 OT defeat to Utah after having been scratched for last Wednesday’s opener in Pittsburgh.
I don’t get it.
I don’t get this at all.
Listen, this is no disrespect directed at Jonny Brodzinski, who replaced Rempe in Games 1 and 3, or perhaps it is more accurate to suggest Rempe replaced Brodzinski for the home opener. Brodzinski is one of the best 750 hockey players in the world. He had an excellent camp.
But let me ask you: Which of these two players would present more of a threat to the Florida Panthers in the conference finals, or to the 2025 version of the Florida Panthers, because there’s always a bigger, stronger, more physical opponent under the rainbow?
Which of these two players has the potential to become a weapon in the spring?
Does it always have to be about winning the next game instead of using the regular season as a runway for the playoffs?
Doesn’t Laviolette believe this team is strong enough to withstand Rempe’s growing curve?
The Rangers, by the way, down the stretch last season while battling for the Presidents’ Trophy the head coach and the team coveted, were 14-2-1 with Rempe in the lineup.
What changed?
I have visited the Zoltar machine.
I don’t get it.
Saturday night on his fourth shift, Rempe went to the front and set a Jack and the Beanstalk-type screen on Connor Ingram that allowed Victor Mancini to beat the blinded netminder from the right point at 4:54 of the second.
But the apparent goal was immediately waved off because Rempe’s heels were apparently in the crease, a goaltender interference judgement that was marginal enough for Laviolette to (unsuccessfully) challenge the call.
Two shifts later, linemate Adam Edstrom picked up a game misconduct in the same sequence in which fourth-line center Sam Carrick picked up a fighting major. That was at 9:23 of the second period.
Rempe got one shift the remainder of the game, as did Carrick. Of Rempe’s seven shifts, one lasted 12 seconds, one last six seconds and one lasted five seconds.
I am eating a baby-sized corn hors d’oeuvre as if it were a normal-sized corn on the cob.
I don’t get it.
“It was the flow of the game. I felt like we chased the game the whole night, it felt like we were constantly behind,” Laviolette said when asked about this. “And to give us credit, we never stopped firing and attacking until we got to 5-5 and overtime.
“But I do think that as the game unwound, two of the line’s pieces went into the penalty box and one was eliminated from the game. That’s when we started to push with three lines, and when it got to the third period, we were still down, chasing a goal.
“I’ve got 60-, 70-, 80-, 90-, 100-point players sitting on the bench,” the coach said. “The only thing that’s on my mind at that point is making sure we get the next goal.”
There is one 100-point player on the Rangers bench, and that is Artemi Panarin. But the point is taken. The Rangers do have some elite talent up front. There are always going to be more productive players on the bench.
Does that mean the Blueshirts are going to cut down to nine forwards whenever they are trailing in the third period?
It is difficult to be a four-line coach. I understand that. Points are precious at any time of year. I understand that, too.
And if the Rangers lose four straight and are a hypothetical 5-7-3 after 15 games, I am not the one who is going to be called into the principal’s office, and I understand that, too.
But this doesn’t make any sense to me.
The Rangers have potentially the most unique fourth-line weapon in the league and they’re stashing him in a silo.
The Rangers have potentially the most unique fourth line in the league with Edstrom and Rempe on the wings, but instead they are going conventional.
What happened over the summer? I am not going to put words in the mouth of Laviolette, one of the most successful coaches in NHL history, but it sure appears Rempe has lost his trust.
But why?
I am dancing on the keyboard playing the piano at FAO Schwarz.
I don’t get it.