If You Like Fighting In Hockey, You Loved Rangers-Devils Tilt

The Devils and Rangers eventually played hockey Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden, but it wasn’t until after they settled some scores.

Chris Kreider’s 36th goal of the season with 4:57 to play ultimately earned New York a 4-3 win over New Jersey, but it’s what happened in the game’s opening minutes that got most of the attention. Actually, make that the opening seconds.

The tone was set before the puck even dropped when both coaches tabbed their fourth lines to start the game. That often means something is about to go down, and that certainly was the case Wednesday night. Two seconds after referee Gord Dwyer dropped the puck for the opening faceoff, gloves went flying across the ice.

Rangers enforcer Matt Rempe was more than willing to tip his hand to begin the main event. With Dwyer’s hand still in the air, the 6-foot-7, 241-pound winger came out of his crouch and started talking to Devils tough guy Kurtis MacDermid. The 6-foot-5 MacDermid was a willing combatant, as the two dropped their mitts as soon as the puck hit the ice.

But before Rempe and MacDermid could trade any punches, New Jersey winger Curtis Lazar started chucking knuckles with Jimmy Vesey, as Rangers center Barclay Goodrow made a beeline for Kevin Bahl. With Rempe and MacDermid taking center stage, everyone else paired off for an old-fashioned line brawl.

When it was all said and done, all 10 skaters were given fighting majors, and eight players — MacDermid, Rempe, Bahl, Goodrow, Chris Tierney, Jacob Trouba, John Marino and K’Andre Miller — all were ejected with 10-minute game misconduct penalties.

Fans of the two bitter rivals have seen this before. Wednesday’s line brawl came a little more than 12 years after the two teams opened a 2012 game with three scraps off the opening faceoff.

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The two teams took a quick breather to do some skating, and at the 4:27 mark, Devils winger Dawson Mercer racked up some major penalty minutes of his own. Mercer took exception to a questionable hit from New York’s Will Cuylle, who plowed Devils defenseman Brendan Smith into the end boards. Mercer got five for fighting, two for the instigator and a 10-minute misconduct. Cuylle got two for boarding and five for fighting.

Add it all up, and there were 24 penalties totaling 156 minutes assessed before the first TV timeout of the night.

Going back to the opening fireworks, perhaps the scale to which the two clubs fought was a little surprising, but a scrap wasn’t. Rempe recently served a four-game suspension for a high hit on Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler. That Lazar and Vesey actually started their fight first was important. The rulebook states players who fight after another scrap has begun are charged with game misconduct penalties, which explains why the other eight were ejected but Vesey and Lazar weren’t.

The players, though, unsurprisingly claimed spontaneity.

“I had no idea that was going to happen,” MacDermid told reporters, per The Associated Press. “It was a spur-of-the-moment thing.”

Devils interim coach Travis Green, however, was a little more forthcoming.

“I have no idea why Peter (Laviolette) was upset,” Green told reporters. “Their players were lining up fights before the game. We all know why it happened tonight. Something happened the game before.”

Barring one of the greatest statistical miracles in sports history, these two teams won’t meet again this season. While the league-leading Rangers are going to the playoffs, the Devils need an act of God to make the postseason, meaning any follow-up will have to wait until next season.