It’s safe to say that Wednesday night’s game between the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils had a less than conventional start.
With a lot of bad blood already existing between the two rivals, Rangers coach Peter Laviolette and Devils interim coach Travis Green decided to play with fire by slotting their respective enforcers in the starting lineup.
And an explosion is just what they got.
Right off the opening faceoff, a full-blown five-versus-five line brawl erupted between the two sides, including an anticipated matchup of Rangers forward Matt Rempe and Devils defenceman Kurtis MacDermid.
The last time these two rival teams met was on March 11, when Rempe was ejected for elbowing Devils defenceman Jonas Siegenthaler.
MacDermid had attempted to fight Rempe after the play but was held back by officials. As Rempe left the ice, he mocked MacDermid by waving at him.
“There’s a right way to go about things and a wrong way,” MacDermid told reporters after the Rangers’ 3-1 win.
“I kind of lost a lot of respect for him tonight. He’s a young kid in this league, he has a lot to learn still. You don’t do things like that in your first year in the league, especially. Like I said, I lost quite a bit of respect for him tonight.”
Jonas Siegenthaler ultimately suffered a concussion and Rempe was slapped by the league with a four game-suspension.
Rempe was also ejected back on Feb. 22 in another matchup between the two teams for a hit to the head on Devils forward Nate Bastian. The 21-year-old rookie received a match penalty but was not suspended for the hit.
So, with that kind of history, something was ultimately bound to happen Wednesday.
With the first fight technically occurring between Rangers forward Jimmy Vesey and Devils forward Curtis Lazar, the following eight fighters were ejected: Rempe, Barclay Goodrow, K’Andre Miller, and Jacob Trouba for the Rangers, and MacDermid, Chris Tierney, Kevin Bahl, and John Marino for the Devils.
“The guys stood up for each other,” said Devils leading scorer Jesper Bratt who had two assists. ”It’s tough. We played a great game as a whole considering the situation we were in.”
In total, 18 penalties were handed out as a result, leading to both teams losing two defencemen and two forwards for the remainder of the game.
The fighting did not end there, however, as Dawson Mercer and Will Cuylle also exchanged blows later in the first period.
— with files from the Associated Press
