A massive brawl broke out between players from the New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils a mere two seconds into their game at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night. Immediately after the puck drop in New York, rookie Matt Rempe from the Rangers and defenseman Kurtis MacDermid from the Devils shed their gloves and began exchanging fists.
The altercation happened right on the ice of Madison Square Garden. All 10 players on the ice eventually got involved in the scuffle, but the focus remained on the confrontation between Rempe and MacDermid, who had a prior history stemming from the Devils' previous visit to the Rangers on March 11.
Ice Turns Red
That night, Kempe refused MacDermid's offer to fight early in the game. However, later in the same game, Rempe delivered a high elbow hit to Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler, forcing him out of the game and resulting in Rempe's subsequent suspension for four games.
During Wednesday's game, Rempe and MacDermid engaged in a prolonged altercation, persisting even after the other four fights had ended. As a result, four players from each team were handed game misconducts a mere 2 seconds into the game.
K'Andre Miller engaged in a bout with John Marino. Jimmy Vesey took on Curtis Lazar in a fight.
Barclay Goodrow traded blows with Kevin Bahl. Captain Jacob Trouba squared off against Chris Tierney.
All 10 players involved in the fight were handed five-minute fighting penalties. Besides, Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette and Devils interim coach Travis Green got into a heated exchange on the sidelines following the brawl.
Later in the first period, at the 4:27 mark, New York's Will Cuylle engaged in a fight with New Jersey's Dawson Mercer after Cuylle delivered a hit on the Devils' Brendan Smith into the boards.
Rempe and His Tempers
Rempe has in no time gained notoriety for his willingness to engage in physical confrontations with opponents, even though he's only played 10 games in his NHL career thus far.
The 21-year-old has been ejected from all three of his encounters with the Devils, with incidents including his elbow on Siegenthaler and a fierce hit on Nathan Bastian during just his second game for the Rangers.
In his three games against them, he accumulated a total of 47 penalty minutes, engaged in two fights, and received three game misconducts, all within just 5 minutes and 3 seconds of ice time.
New Jersey head coach Travis Green said about Rempe's elbow last month: "Everyone who knows the game at all knows that that player is in a vulnerable spot and there's a player that's looking to, call it predatorial or whatever you want to call it, it's definitely not the first time that it's happened. I think there's some intent there to injure the player."
