Mike Sullivan could sense how difficult this was for Matt Rempe right away. The emotions of the 6-foot-9 Rangers forward — an imposing presence left to operate as a shadow of his usual self even after returning from a broken thumb — said it all.
Earlier this month, Sullivan called Rempe into his office, and the pair spent 20 minutes discussing the health of Rempe’s left thumb and what it meant for his spot in the lineup. He’d missed 24 games after sustaining the injury during a fight with the Sharks’ Ryan Reaves in October.
It served as the first major injury of Rempe’s career, the only one to require surgery, and even though he knew injuries were an inevitable part of the sport he was trying to carve out a career in, that didn’t make it any easier to deal with.
And in 12 games after returning to the Blueshirts lineup in mid-December, it would become clear to Sullivan that the lingering impacts of Rempe’s thumb injury impacted his performance.
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