In Hurricanes-Rangers playoff series, what impact will the ‘Matt Rempe Effect’ have?

If looks could kill …

Matt Rempe was not a happy man when he took the ice at PNC Arena on March 12. The New York Rangers were to play the Carolina Hurricanes that day and the Rangers’ rookie center was facing a suspension from the NHL for elbowing Jonas Siegenthaler of the New Jersey Devils in the head the previous night.

Rempe was one of the Rangers’ extras skating the morning of the Canes game. Spotting a reporter taking cell-phone photos of him, the 6-foot-7 forward skated toward the glass with a menacing, love-to-hit-you look — the kind he has given opposing NHL players this season.

Rempe did not play that night as the Rangers took a 1-0 victory over the Canes behind goalie Igor Shesterkin’s 28-save shutout. By then, he had been suspended four games by the league’s Department of Player Safety, which deemed the elbowing incident unnecessary and dangerous.

“It’s a learning process,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said before the game. “It’s over and you learn from it. He plays the game hard, he’s a young kid. He’s learning about the game.”

NHL takes notice of Matt Rempe

The NHL has learned a lot about Rempe in a short time.

While the Canes did not face Rempe in the regular season, they will in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Rempe does not play a lot of minutes — his playoff high was 8:33 in Game 1 against the Washington Capitals — but he keeps your attention when he is on the ice.

Such is the ‘Matt Rempe Effect.”

“He’s certainly been impactful,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Thursday. “The time he’s been out there, you notice him. Big, physical guy.

“He’s certainly doing his job that they want him to do. But there are a lot of other guys we’ve got to worry about.”

A lot of what you see in Rempe is in the eye of the beholder. Opposing fans call him a villain, a goon and much worse on social media. For Rangers fans, who chant “Rempe! Rempe!” at Madison Square Garden, the 21-year-old has added youthful energy and another degree of toughness — and let’s face it, unpredictability — to the lineup.

Like him or loathe him, you can’t ignore him.

A physical presence

At 6-7 and 241 pounds, Rempe can pound you. And will. And that thought rattles around the brain of anyone playing a puck off the boards with Rempe‘s large frame bearing down.

“You don’t want to put yourself in a bad position if you don’t have to,” Canes center Sebastian Aho said Thursday. “It’s about being aware, but it doesn’t really change the way you play. And it’s the same with every player. You always have to be aware. But it’s about putting your own hammer down and playing your own game.”

Aho said he was watching the playoffs a few days ago when one of his former teammates, Caps defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk, absorbed a savage hit from Rempe playing a puck behind the net. It knocked van Riemsdyk out of the game and the series.

Rempe was penalized for interference. The Rangers called it a clean, hard hit, claiming it should not be a penalty.

Caps coach Spencer Carbery had this opinion: “It’s really close on all fronts — interference, charging, late. It’s such a fine line. The game is so fast. Physicality is such an important part of the NHL.”

As for van Riemsdyk, he said the hit “obviously sucked” but also noted a player has to be careful “when guys like that are on the ice.”

Guys like that. The Caps’ Tom Wilson, who can be another guy like that, challenged Rempe to fight after Rempe also hit and hurt the Caps’ T.J. Oshie. But Rempe did not drop the gloves and oblige.

He often has, though. Rempe had three fights in his first five games, dueling Matt Martin of the Islanders in the outdoor game at MetLife Stadium. His fight with the Flyers’ Nicolas Deslauriers had too many punches to accurately count and his drop-’em battle with Mathieu Olivier of Columbus was a heavyweight bout that Olivier won.

But his hits can be brutal, as van Riemsdyk can attest. Oshie said he suffered a broken hand when Rempe hit him along the boards.

Power forward Andrei Svechnikov, the Canes’ most physical player, agreed there is that “fine line” that separates a hard but clean hit from a dirty, injurious one. Or one that leads to a penalty that can hurt your team, especially in the playoffs.

“Everything matters in the playoffs and you have to be careful,” Svechnikov said Thursday.

As for facing Rempe …

“I don’t know that much about him but I heard he’s tough, fights and it seems like he hits everyone,” Svechnikov said. “I mean, I don’t care, really.”

‘You got to be wary of everybody’

Canes forward Seth Jarvis said he played against Rempe several times in the Western Hockey League when Jarvis was with the Portland Winterhawks and Rempe with the Seattle Thunderbirds.

“He was the same kind of player. Big body, moved decently well,” Jarvis said Thursday. “He’s gotten a lot more attention for it (now), but I don’t remember him fighting quite as much. But a physical, big player, and he was effective.

“They had a big team. They had a few players, including him, you had to be wary of.”

The same is true of the Rangers, who beat out the Canes to win the Metro Division this season and also captured the league’s Presidents’ Trophy.

In the 2022 playoffs, a pivotal moment in Game 7 was Jarvis taking a huge open-ice hit from Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba. Jarvis, knocked woozy, got back to his feet and was slow in getting back to the bench, to the point the Canes were called for having too many men on the ice during the change.

The Rangers, leading 1-0, scored again on the power play in the first period and won the game 6-2 to finish off the series.

“You got to be wary of everybody,” Jarvis said.

Jarvis, who finds a little humor in everything, said there might be one way to avoid a Rempe collision: go down to one knee and skate between Rempe’s legs.

“Of course, ‘Jarvy’ would say that,” Aho replied, laughing.