Matt Rempe was on NHL ice for the first time for one singular second when Matt Martin eyed him down.
It was exactly what he needed.
It was exactly what he wanted.
The 6-foot-8 ¹/₂ Rangers forward, who became the first player in history to make his NHL debut in an outdoor game, instantly dropped the gloves with the 34-year-old Islanders heavyweight.
They went punch-for-punch, and Rempe’s abnormally long reach got the better of Martin repeatedly until the two called it quits.
Rempe, 21, threw his arms up repeatedly on his way to the penalty box and incited the primarily blue-and-red-clad crowd to get loud — and they did.
The hooting and hollering had Rempe ready to take on the rest of the game.
“I thought he came in here and did exactly what we wanted him to do,” head coach Peter Laviolette said after the Rangers rallied from down two goals in the third period before Artemi Panarin secured a 6-5 win in overtime. “He provided some size, some physicality. He had some good shifts on his line in the offensive zone. Kudos to Martin for giving him his first one up here. It was a heck of a fight. You don’t see it very much in an outdoor game.
“You think about Rempe’s path and this being his first game on a memorable day for him and dropping the gloves with a guy that’s been around in this league and has fought a lot of fights and established himself as a really tough customer. Kudos to him. It was awesome. He couldn’t have had a better night.”
Rempe finished with the fighting major and one hit in 4:26 of ice time in Sunday’s win.
After earning his first two recalls to the Rangers over the last week and a half since the organization drafted him 165th overall in 2020, Rempe participated in practice as if he was in the lineup for two days.
The first recall was just for the Rangers to get a look at Rempe and his progress, but the second came in the wake of Blake Wheeler’s season-ending lower-body injury.
Size and strength is something the Rangers would like to acquire before the March 8 trade deadline, but Rempe provides an in-house option.
After improving to 5-0-0 all-time in outdoor games, the Rangers became the first team in NHL history to win five such contests.
Their three-goal comeback victory marks the first of its kind in an outdoor game in NHL history.
The Rangers are also just the second team to overcome a multi-goal deficit in the final five minutes of regulation to win an outdoor game.