Fight incoming? Toronto Maple Leafs putting Ryan Reaves in lineup to counter Matt Rempe
The Toronto Maple Leafs might be ratcheting up the physicality as they head into the weekend.
Tonight, the team has inserted Ryan Reaves into the lineup, the first time since March 4 that Toronto’s enforcer will be playing.
According to Leafs coach Craig Berube, it’s to combat the presence of Matt Rempe, who Reaves fought last March.
“I think Rempe over there. Heās an effective player in my opinion,ā Berube said today, as per the Athletic’s Peter Baugh.
Rempe has two goals and two assists in 23 games this season for New York, in comparison to Reaves’s no goals and two assists in 33 games. Rempe has also spent 18 games in the AHL with the Hartford Wolf Pack this season, but the 22-year-old 6-foot-9 Calgary native has become one of the game’s most feared enforcers since making his NHL debut with New York last season.
“He’s definitely the longest I’ve ever fought for sure,” Reaves said last season of their first bout. “He’s just really lanky and for sure the biggest guy I’ve ever fought… he talked about how the media pumped it up so much, and he was like, it was two Original Six teams going at it, and how all everyone was talking about was the fight. It was cool.”
Rempe has fought four times this season, while Reaves has actually only dropped the gloves once. But known as two of the game’s biggest heavyweights, the two could line up for a rematch at some point during tonight’s contest.
Per TSN’s Mark Masters, here are the full Leafs lines for tonight:
Matthew Knies – Auston Matthews – Mitch Marner
Pontus Holmberg – Tavares – William Nylander
Bobby McMann –Ā Max Domi – Nick Robertson
Steven Lorentz – David Kampf – Ryan Reaves
MorganĀ Rielly – Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Jake McCabe – Philippe Myers
Simon Benoit – Conor Timmins
Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. EST for tonight’s matchup at Madison Square Garden.