NEW YORK — Craig Berube isn’t even bothering to disguise the reason he’s giving tough guy Ryan Reaves his first game action in 24 days.
“(Matt) Rempe over there, obviously,” the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs explained Friday morning at Madison Square Garden.
“He’s an effective player, in my opinion. He’s physical. He’s a hard guy to handle. So, I just wanted to get Reavo in there.”
Reaves — a 38-year-old fourth-liner clinging to a roster spot in Toronto — was effective in deterring young, tall Rempe from imposing his physicality on the Leafs when the Rangers rolled through Toronto earlier this season.
Having been passed over for ice time by the likes of AHL call-up Alex Steeves (who sits Friday), Reaves has been patiently waiting for another shot to make an impact.
Aside from a quick jaunt to Mexico during the 4 Nations Face-Off break (“Working on my tan,” he quips), the veteran has been logging extra work with the Leafs’ skills coaches and keeping his conditioning high for instances like this.
“Just making sure I’m hanging out with boys as much as I can. Just kind of keeping my mind fresh and not getting too distracted with the situation,” explained Reaves, a former Ranger. “It’s been a while, been like a month. So, playing against an old team in a fun arena that’s always buzzing, it’s always fun.
“There’s always a good buzz when there’s fights here. The crowd seems to really like that. They get up, and you can feel the energy.”
The anticipation of a Rempe-Reaves rematch hardly matches that of their epic first tilt last spring on Hockey Night in Canada.
“I haven’t watched it in a while. Maybe this afternoon I’ll pull it up,” Berube smiled. “A kid coming up like that in the league, and what he’s done and what he’s trying to accomplish and trying to make a name for himself — (Rempe) is an effective guy that way.
“Just go play. And if something happens, it happens. But Reavo in the lineup maybe deters him from being as physical as he has been, or their whole team for that fact. And that’s the reason I went with him tonight.”
One-Timers: William Nylander took a knock late in Tuesday’s comeback win over the Bruins and was too hurt to play overtime. After a couple days off the ice, he assures he’s back to normal. “He’s 100 per cent today,” Berube said…. Philippe Myers will replace the injured Chris Tanev (suspected right shoulder) to the right of Jake McCabe because Berube didn’t want to tweak multiple defence pairings based on one injury…. Joseph Woll is feeling under the weather, so Anthony Stolarz breaks the rotation and gets consecutive starts…. Max Pacioretty (undisclosed) was retroactively moved to injured reserve. That’s a paper move. He’s practising well and could return shortly…. The Rangers won’t dress Team USA stars Adam Fox and Chris Kreider, and they have some other game-time decisions.
Maple Leafs’ projected lineup Friday in New York:
Knies – Matthews – Marner
Holmberg – Tavares – Nylander
McMann – Domi – Robertson
Lorentz – Kämpf – Reaves
Rielly – Ekman-Larsson
McCabe – Myers
Benoit – Timmins
Stolarz starts
Woll
