Brendan Lemieux suspension is over, could be the shot in the arm the Rangers need
Brendan Lemieux will be available for David Quinn in game three tomorrow after serving his two game suspension. The coach will need Lemieux to play with an edge but at the same time walk that disciplined tightrope.
Brendan Lemieux suspension over
Well it took over four months to decide, but the NHL Department of Player Safety suspended Brendan Lemieux for games one and two of this series. Now his time has been served and the Rangers really need him.
If Brendan Lemieux was not suspended, he would have started at leftwing on the line with Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko. Matter of fact, he had some good chemistry this season with Kaapo Kakko and would’ve look good there in game one.
Lemieux needs to bring the heat in game 3
Lemieux set career highs on many individual statistics before the NHL pause. The 23 year-old in-your-face winger had 18 points on the season in 59 games. That surpasses his 17 points in 63 games last year.
When it comes to the stats that really matter for a player like Lemieux, he had 164 hits on the season, only Jacob Trouba’s 173 had more for the Blueshirts. The feisty winger also amassed a personal best 111 penalty minutes including a team leading 5 fighting majors, and didn’t avoid the league’s heavyweights. That was proven when he went mano-a-mano with Caps bruiser, Tom Wilson.
Of course, hitting and fighting certainly means more when you can chip in offensively. That’s what makes the best agitators effective, just remember Brendan’s dad is legendary pest Claude Lemieux.
Brendan has shown the skills to score. David Quinn has used him on the 2nd PP unit in a similar role to Chris Kreider on the 1st causing chaos in front. On top of his impressive grit stats, he has 2 goals and 5 points on the man advantage plus 1 goal and 1 assist shorthanded.
The Rangers will need more than Lemieux to stave off elimination, but he could be a serious shot in the arm against the Hurricanes.
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