Matt Rempe confirmed he broke his left thumb in “many places” during his early season fight with the Sharks’ Ryan Reaves and had to undergo surgery to repair it.
Coming off his return to the Rangers lineup Monday night against the Ducks, Rempe said it was a tough rehab process.
He worked out in the gym for the first little while before he began power skating for a couple of weeks without a stick.
As soon as he could hold a stick again, Rempe progressed with light stickhandling and passing before working in more and more.
Asked if he knew something was wrong immediately during the Oct. 23 fight, the 6-foot-9 forward said “No.”
“I got to the penalty box, we were saying, ‘Good fight’ to each other, and I looked down at my thumb and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this thing’s not right,’ ” Rempe said after the Rangers fell, 4-1, to Anaheim at Madison Square Garden. “It just got tangled up in his jersey and it obviously was kind of in the wrong spot and I was throwing a lot of left jabs. I just kept going, ‘Bang, bang, bang,’ and I guess I was just kind of breaking it and breaking it.
“But when you’re in a fight, you don’t feel anything, so you had no idea until after and it didn’t really hurt. You have so much adrenaline after. That was a big fight, so I didn’t really feel anything for a while. But, yeah, it happens. It’s part of it.”
Rempe, who missed 24 straight games, was back in his fourth-line spot alongside the right wing of Sam Carrick and Taylor Raddysh. Logging 9:01 of ice time, the lowest among Rangers forwards, Rempe recorded one shot on goal, five hits and one takeaway in the loss.
He also returned to the net front on the second power-play unit, logging 1:08 of ice time with the man advantage.
The 23-year-old Rempe assured reporters that he was not deterred from fighting, but it may be some time before we see Big No. 73 drop the gloves again.
“Not at all, not at all,” he said. “I can’t for a little while because I can’t really bend it correctly yet. A couple more weeks and it’ll be golden, but I can’t for a little bit, which sucks, but it’s all right because you just go play hockey and stuff.”
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