Last night a rivalry game took place: New York Rangers vs New Jersey Devils. As expected, there were a couple fights and a couple big hits; one of them by Rangers' rookie Matthew Rempe that garnered a lot of attention.
Devils' Nick Bastian was battling for the puck near the boards. He happened to have his head down, and Rempe came up and laid a check to the head. He was then given a match penalty for roughing after the review.
There was talk about him possibly being suspended for this or even fined, at least getting a hearing, but insider Frank Seravalli said that he doesn't think any of those things will happen.
You have to believe it at least raised an eyebrow or two from the Department of Player Safety, but they decided to leave it be. The deciding factor could have been that his head was down when the check was delivered, and the fact that Rempe is bigger than Bastian.
Rempe may want to watch out, though. He's starting to build a reputation of being a little bit of a goon. After his fight against Matt Martin in his career opening shift at the Stadium Series, to this, and having more penalty minutes than ice time, he certainly doesn't want to get on the bad side of the DoPS.
