PHILADELPHIA — It’s almost becoming routine at this point.
Rangers fourth-line forward Matt Rempe and Nicolas Deslauriers dropped the gloves just three minutes into the first period and delivered an old-school fight on Saturday at Wells Fargo Center, exchanging plenty of punches and ending when Deslauriers dumped Rempe onto the ice.
Everything started when the pair skated around in circles for more than a dozen seconds after their gloves landed on the ice. The other Rangers and Flyers skaters cleared out of the way. The referees didn’t even try to interfere.
The other Rangers and Flyers skaters cleared out of the way.
The referees didn’t even try to interfere.
The public address system even rang a bell to signify a fight was going down.
And once Rempe — at 6-foot-8 — lunged toward Deslauriers, the pair exchanged punches for nearly 40 seconds, until the top of Rempe’s jersey got pulled onto his head, he tried to fix it with one hand and ended up on the ice a few seconds later.
It marked Rempe’s second fight in four games since getting called up from AHL Hartford, with his first occurring on his first NHL shift in the Stadium Series win against the Islanders.
In their win against the Devils on Thursday, Rempe also knocked Nathan Bastian into the boards on his first shift and earned a match penalty.
It didn’t prompt any time of hearing from the NHL.
“That’s just a big man. Everything is down. There’s nothing that’s up,” Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette said postgame Thursday. “Never lifted his arm. I’m glad [Bastian] came back and played and was not hurt from that. Nobody wants to see anybody get hurt, but it’s just tough.
“He’s a big guy. He was full steam ahead and kept everything down, tried to go through the body and I’m sure he hit everything. It’s a tough call. We’ll look at it and see.”
After the fight against Deslauriers, where the Blueshirts forward had a seven-inch height advantage, Rempe has now collected 27 penalty minutes since joining the Blueshirts.
He hadn’t even totaled 10 minutes of ice time yet, either.