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During the "Battle of New York" between the Rangers and Islanders at the Stadium Series on Sunday, the Blueshirts' rookie forward Matt Rempe had quite a memorable debut game, which fans will remember for a long time.
At just 1:29 into the first period, Rempe dropped his gloves against the Isles' Matt Martin off the faceoff. Matt Rempe, 21, listed 6-foot-7, took advantage of his reach and landed some punches on Martin.
Neither of the players went down, and the linesmen eventually had to intervene and stop the tussle between the two players. Fans on X, formerly Twitter, reacted to Rempe dropping the gloves on his debut.
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One fan tweeted:
"New Chara?"
Here are some of the other top reactions on X:
Matt Rempe became the first NHL player to debut in a regular-season outdoor game.
It also marked the first time that a fight took place during an outdoor game since Anthony Mantha and Jordan Martinook dropped the gloves during the Washington Capitals and Carolina Hurricanes' Stadium Series last season in Raleigh.
Rempe was drafted No. 165 overall by the Rangers in the 2020 draft. The 21-year-old Calgary native spent the last two seasons with the Wolf Pack of the AHL.
Matt Rempe was called from the AHL by the Blue Shirst following forward Black Wheeler's leg injury sustained Thursday night. Wheeler is expected to miss the rest of the regular season.
Matt Rempe's debut ends with the Rangers' win over the Islanders
On Sunday, the New York Rangers and the New York Islanders squared off at Met Life Stadium in a Stadium Series outdoor clash.
The Blue Shirts overcame their arch-rivals with a 6-5 win in overtime and extended their winning streak to a season-high seven games.
The Islanders got off to a dominant start, with goals from Brock Nelson, Bo Horvat and Matthew Barzal giving the lead a 3-1 advantage at the end of the first period.
Following Andres Lee's fourth goal coming on a powerplay at 1:03 of the second period, the Rangers mounted a brilliant comeback to rally from a 4-1 deficit.
Vincent Trochek scored twice for the Rangers to cut the deficit to 4-3. In the third period, Alexander Romanov restored the Isles' lead to 5-3. However, goals from Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad tied the game 5-5 for the Blueshirts, forcing overtime.
Artemi Panarin then scored 10 seconds to win it 6-5 for the Rangers in front of a whopping 79,690 crowd. Matt Rempe and the Rangers take on the Dallas Stars next on Tuesday, Feb. 20.
