Nobody should be shocked that the Devils and Rangers had a Line Brawl at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night, despite what some think about how it looks.
A storm was brewing between these two teams. This was a long time coming, considering what happened in the last two games involving Matt Rempe and the New Jersey Devils.
A FULL ON 5v5 LINE BRAWL TO START THE GAME 😱
CHAOS AT MSG ‼️ pic.twitter.com/k95BsP34xA
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 3, 2024
Even New Jersey Devils interim head coach Travis Green knows it is an emotional game. But a line brawl might have been too much to expect to start the game.
“Obviously, five fights to start the game,” Green said postgame. “I don’t know if anyone was expecting that. It’s an emotional game.”
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However, the Devils were tired of getting pushed around by the Rangers and Matt Rempe. Rempe did not answer the call against Kurtis MacDermid in the game on March 11th. He had to answer for two hits, and he did not.
One was on Nathan Bastian, which has knocked him out for the remainder of the season. The other hit was on Jonas Siegenthaler, which cost Rempe four games. MacDermid was looking to settle the score after the hit on Siegenthaler, but the referees immediately jumped in. But they should have let Rempe and MacDermid fight.
Adding to it, Rempe waved “bye-bye” with his hand to MacDermid as they separated. So, there was a lot of unfinished business heading into the game on April 3rd.
Green made that very clear post-game when speaking with the media.
“Their players were lining up fights before the faceoff, and none of this would have happened, which we all know why it did happen tonight; none of it would have happened if something happened the game before, which was obvious that they didn’t want it to happen that game,” Green said.
We all know what the night’s main event was going to be. Kurtis MacDermid versus Matt Rempe. However, when you see the Devils start their fourth line and the Rangers match with their fourth line, you know something will happen. It was not going to be just Rempe and MacDermid.
April 3rd was a throwback to March 19, 2012, the last time these two teams had a line brawl to start the game. Except on April 3rd, it was two seconds into the game.
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But to say you did not see this coming, you were not paying attention to what was happening between these two teams.
“Eventually, we were going get here, and last night we got here, Elliotte Friedman said on the Jeff Marek Show on Thursday. “And I don’t know why anybody should be surprised considering some of the personalities involved. I don’t see how anybody could have expected anything different last night.”
There was tension entering this game. And you know MacDermid’s teammates would not let him go it alone. This is something that brought the entire Devils team together. Rempe already brought the Rangers together.
“I can’t emphasize it enough – there is nothing that will bring a team closer together than getting into a dust-up with one another,” Mike Rupp said on the Real Kyper and Bourne Show.
If you understand the game’s code, Fight Night saw a Line Brawl between the Devils and Rangers was necessary.