Devils-Rangers Game Starts With All 10 Skaters Brawling

(CTN News) – A brawl broke out after the opening faceoff of Wednesday’s game between the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils.

Matt Rempe faced Kurtis MacDermid in the main event. The two previously met at Madison Square Garden on March 11, when the Devils visited the Rangers.

Early in the game that night, Rempe declined MacDermid’s offer to fight. Rempe knocked out Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler with a high elbow and received a four-game suspension.

The longest fight of the evening was between Rempe and MacDermid on center ice after all four other fights ended. Each team received four game misconducts two seconds into the match.

The team responding that way and having each other’s backs was great,” said MacDermid, who hadn’t played for New Jersey in four games. The man (Rempe) respects me. He can only do his thing as a young man. “I understand.”

Besides Rempe, New York defensemen Jacob Trouba and K’Andre Miller and forward Barclay Goodrow were also ejected. Several New Jersey players were also ejected early, including defensemen Kevin Bahl and John Marino, as well as forwards Chris Tierney and MacDermid.

Chris Kreider’s power-play goal sealed the Rangers’ victory 4-3.

It hadn’t occurred to me that would happen. Of the five simultaneous fights, MacDermid said, “it was spur of the moment.”

As for the Rangers’ forward Jimmy Vesey, he faced New Jersey’s Curtis Lazar in New Jersey, while Miller went up against Marino, Trouba faced Tierney, Goodrow faced Bahl, and Trouba faced Tierney. Lazar and Vesey remained in the game since they fought first and did not receive further punishment.

Several things happened at once. There were five fights to start the game. “Nobody expected that,” Devils Rangers interim head coach Travis Green said.

A fracas occurred between the benches after Green’s words were exchanged with Laviolette. Green said he had no idea why Peter was upset. Before the game, players lined up fights. It’s obvious why it happened tonight. The game before, something happened.”

Additionally, all 10 players were penalized for fighting for five minutes. During the first period, New York’s Will Cuylle fought New Jersey’s Dawson Mercer after Cuylle hit the Devils’ Rangers’ Brendan Smith into the boards. “It was more of an emotional thing,” Laviolette said. There was a lot of fighting between the guys,” he said.

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