The Washington Capitals expressed frustration after the latest injurious hit by New York Rangers rookie Matt Rempe, which took out defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk in Game 3 of their series on Friday night.

The Rangers won the game, 3-1, to take a 3-0 series lead in Washington.

With 7:52 left in the first period, van Riemsdyk skated deep into his defensive zone and moved the puck in the opposite direction. Rempe skated straight into him, crushing the defenseman against the end boards. Rempe was given a minor penalty for interference. Van Riemsdyk didn’t return to the game.

The NHL confirmed on Saturday that there would be no Department of Player Safety hearing for Rempe.

The Rangers rookie has made an impact in 17 regular-season and three playoff games, despite limited ice time. Van Riemsdyk is at least the fourth player Rempe has injured on hits since making his NHL debut on Feb. 18. Nathan Bastian and Jonas Siegenthaler of the New Jersey Devils, as well as Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin, all had to leave games after Rempe hits. Rempe earned a four-game suspension for his elbow on Siegenthaler and was given a match penalty for the Bastian hit.

The Capitals’ Nic Dowd called out the Rempe hit on van Riemsdyk. “That was a dirty hit. I think anyone can understand that Riems made a play, time passed and a player took advantage of another player in a vulnerable spot,” said Dowd.

Defenseman John Carlson, who skated over 30 minutes in Game 3 because of injuries on the Capitals’ blueline, was exasperated.

“I’m sick and tired of losing defensemen to ‘clean’ hits, that’s for sure. It’s frustrating how guys can get injured and it’s legal,” he said.

Following an optional skate on Saturday, Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said he felt Rempe’s hit was borderline.

“I think it’s really close on a lot of fronts: Interference, charging, late. It’s such a fine line. The game is so fast. The physicality is such an important part of the NHL. But there is a line and player safety is a big, big issue in the league. Protecting players. And the onus is on the players. It’s tight. It’s really, really tight,” he said.

“[Van Riemsdyk] just turns. I don’t know if there’s a set amount of time, where they put a guy on a stop clock and it’s one one-thousand, two one-thousand and ‘bang,'” Carbery said, clapping his hands. “But it was really close.”

The Rangers seek to close out the series on Sunday in Washington. Rempe has a goal and no assists in three playoff games. He’s averaging 7:08 per game in ice time, up from 5:38 in the regular season.

Michael Busch has been a first-round draft pick, a top-100 prospect and a Pacific Coast League MVP during his ascent toward the majors. In most organizations, that kind of résumé gets you fast-tracked to the big leagues. But as a prospect in the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ system, the path was much more complicated.

First, it was perennial All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman signing a long-term deal to occupy Busch’s primary position in Los Angeles for years to come. Then, an offseason later, it was Shohei Ohtani joining the Dodgers, likely penciling Ohtani’s name into the designated hitter spot for the next decade.

Busch insists he wasn’t fazed by the splashy additions crowding L.A.’s depth chart before he could get the chance to prove himself at Dodger Stadium. But there was one question the former North Carolina star was consistently asked this offseason: Where would he get his at-bats?

“I got that a lot from my friends,” Busch told ESPN this week. “I was always like, ‘Adding those guys is going to increase our chances to win.’ I looked at it as: ‘How can I help this ballclub now?’ Honestly, that was my mindset.”

Busch put that to practice in recent seasons, agreeing to play all over the diamond in hopes of finding a place that would allow him to showcase his bat as an everyday player. Despite the challenges that come with learning a new position each year, Busch never stopped hitting, belting 32 home runs in 2022 and following up by posting a 1.049 OPS on his way to winning the Pacific Coast League’s top honor last season.

“They gave me an opportunity to play second base and I was excited about it,” Busch said with a smile. “Then last year they gave me an opportunity to play third base and I never played third base in my life. I got excited about that as well.”

Then on Jan. 12, Busch’s road to the majors finally opened up — but not with the team that drafted him in 2019. Busch and reliever Yency Almonte were traded to the Chicago Cubs for Single-A players Zyhir Hope and Jackson Ferris — a pair of prospects who were high on L.A’s draft board before being selected by the Cubs.

“It just became harder and harder with the way we were constructed to get him playing time,” Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes said recently. “We all felt Michael was a big leaguer and ready to take the next step towards facing MLB pitching every day. And we just didn’t have the opportunity to do that.”

A move that went under the radar during the hot stove season alleviated the Dodgers’ 40-man roster crunch while giving the Cubs a potential long-term solution at a position they have struggled to fill since trading away Anthony Rizzo in 2021.

“He fit the profile of a need that we had,” Cubs GM Carter Hawkins said. “We knew that he was a player that was going to be available, and we knew he was really good — but the Dodgers knew he was really good and weren’t going to give him away.”

The timing of the trade allowed Busch to immediately introduce himself in his new home. Upon learning of the deal, he left in the middle of a visit to Chapel Hill to head to Chicago, put on a Cubs jersey and walked out to applause at Cubs Convention — even though he didn’t entirely know what the team’s popular offseason event was.

“I just know how important it is to be on a team and to build that culture,” Busch said. “Showing up to spring training made it a little easier after being at the convention.”

But the real introduction came a few months later, when Busch entered the season with his name atop an MLB depth chart for the first time. The Cubs’ new first baseman immediately impressed his teammates with his ability at the plate, hitting .389 with five RBIs in six games during his first Wrigley Field homestand — and belting his first home run against the team that drafted him in a thrilling win over the Dodgers.

Then came the streak. From April 10 to April 15, Busch homered in five straight games, tying a franchise mark that put his name in the record books alongside Chicago icons Sammy Sosa and Ryne Sandberg.

“Even before he had that out-of-body stretch of home runs, I saw the consistency in his at-bats, against all types of pitchers, leverage counts, two strike counts, whatever,” second baseman Nico Hoerner said. “And then the raw power is more than I realized.”

Busch’s ability to hit with authority from the left side was already an important component of a lineup that struggled against right-handed pitching a season ago, and it has become even more important now that Cody Bellinger is out with two cracked ribs suffered while running into the Wrigley Field wall.

“I think we’re in that position,” manager Craig Counsell said. “To minimize [the absence] a little bit. And to cover it a little bit.”

Bellinger isn’t the only key player missing from the lineup. The Cubs are also without right fielder Seiya Suzuki, who injured an oblique in the midst of a red-hot start to the season, adding to the need for Busch and others to pick up the slack to avoid a drop-off like the one Chicago suffered when Bellinger was out this past May.

“The challenge part of it I love,” Busch said. “I’ve been happy with the adjustments in my career, dating back to high school and college and pro ball. I think I can continue that here.”

Mike Tauchman, who is filling in for Bellinger in center field, has noticed a presence from Busch that you’d expect to see from a seasoned veteran, rather than a rookie with just 50 major league games under his belt.

“He has a pretty natural feel for how to take at-bats,” Tauchman said. “The home runs have been impressive, but that stuff can come and go. But when he’s not hitting home runs, he’s in control of his at-bats.

“The adjustments have come pretty quickly, which signals a pretty mature approach for a young player. There isn’t a ton of overreaction to a bad at-bat, which is hard to do.”

That scouting report might remind fans of the last player to hold down first base in Chicago for an extended period — and Busch isn’t backing down from the challenge of living up to the standard Rizzo set at the position.

“Great player and doing it at a high level for a long time,” Busch said. “You hear about how good he was in the clubhouse. He loved to work, he loved to play. So do I.”

Los Angeles Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon said Friday that he has a high-grade partial tear of his left hamstring, with the update coming five days after he was placed on the injured list with a “strain.”

It is expected to be a lengthy recovery for Rendon, who has not played more than 58 games in any of his previous four seasons since signing a seven-year, $245 million contract with the Angels, although one of those was the shortened 2020 pandemic season.

“I’m definitely not going to be back in the 10-day window,” Rendon said. “It’s been four years running now. So I was angry for a few days, frustrated, mad, everything you could imagine because the game keeps getting taken away from me, right? I want to win, and I want to be out there. I do everything in my power to stay out there, and it seems like nothing is working.”

Rendon is batting .267 with no home runs, three RBIs and three stolen bases in 19 games. He opened the year by going 0-for-19 in five games before batting .357 (20-for-56) over his past 14 games.

He was an All-Star and finished third in the National League MVP voting while playing for the Washington Nationals in 2019. That season, he set career highs with a .319 batting average, 34 homers and 126 RBIs, the latter leading the majors along with 44 doubles.

For his career, Rendon is batting .283 with 158 homers and 660 RBIs in 1,135 games.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.