New York Rangers Rempe Suspended After Dirty Hit on Miro Heiskanen

I know we don’t cover sports very often here, but this is one of the stories I am passionate about, so we are going to take a quick break from politics so I can rant about this hit.

I am a diehard Dallas Stars fan, so seeing the Rangers' Matt Rempe charge into Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen had me screaming at the TV.

Thankfully, Miro was not hurt, and Rempe has just been issued an 8-game suspension for the hit.

Dirty Hockey

Rempe is a thug who started his NHL career with a fight and he just kept dropping the gloves until he wound up being sent down during his first stint with the team.

Now, I love fighting in hockey, and I love the hitting, but it needs to be legal, not a cheap shot, which is what this hit was.

If you are not familiar with the game, you are not permitted to hit a player with his numbers to you while up against the boards. This is called boarding, but in this case, Rempe took it to a whole new level.

Rempe is one of, if not the tallest player in the league at 6’8 ½”. Miro is 6’1”. While Miro was playing a puck up against the boards, Rempe built up steam across the ice, then left his skates while hitting Heiskanen and adding an elbow to Miro’s neck for good measure…

He literally could have snapped Heiskanen’s neck with that hit, and it was just a freak of nature that Miro was not significantly injured after that hit.

Rempe had a call with league officials days after the game to explain his side of the story, but the league issued an 8-game suspension to the thug, the second time he has been suspended during his very short NHL career.

Rempe has now had four game misconducts and eight major penalties in just 22 games, so, in my opinion, he should have been tossed for the season with the threat of never playing in the league again.

I love hockey for its brutal nature, but again, there is plenty of space to hit people within the rule book.

My best guess here is that the next time the Stars play the Rangers, someone is going to teach the youngster a lesson about cheap shotting a star player in the league.

Heiskanen does not have the gaudy stats of some of the more offensive-minded defensemen in the league, but he is by far one of the best skating and stick men on the defensive side of the puck, and I can guarantee you that you will not get an argument on that from anyone that knows or reports on hockey.