Tonight the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils renewed their rivalry. The game quickly got out of hand when both teams decided to engage in a full line brawl off the opening puck drop.
There has been a ton of history between the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils this season. At the center of most of it is Rangers enforcer Matt Rempe. Tonight this trend continued as Matt Rempe and Devils Kurtis MacDermid started a full line brawl between the two teams.
At one point even the coaches decided to get in on the action as Peter Laviolette and Travis Green would get heated with one another.
The fight would break loose as a pre-planned bout between the two enforcers. As they fought all the other players on the ice decided to join in. As a result, sticks and gloves were left lying all over the ice as the referees decided on penalties for the players.
The referees would conference and eventually decide that 8 players warranted an ejection. This along with a laundry list of other penalties would be the solution.
The penalties would not do much to stop the teams from continuing the heated exchanges just a few minutes later Rangers Will Cuylle and Devils Dawson Mercer would also drop the gloves.
Penalties were given out to them as well. Within the chaos, Artemi Panarin found time to score a goal assisted by Alexis Lafreniere and Adam Fox to give the Rangers the lead. Wirth this game still in the first period plenty more chaos could break loose before the game is done.