Not only did the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils have a line brawl after the opening faceoff Wednesday that resulted in five different fights, eight ejections, and 130 PIMs, but the teams’ two head coaches, Peter Laviolette and Travis Green, got into a screaming match.
Laviolette, the 59-year-old former head coach of the Washington Capitals, worked his way over to the end of the Rangers bench where he could be seen yelling and wantonly pointing his finger at Green through the glass. TNT analyst Darren Pang, who was right in the middle of the exchange, was silent, perhaps worried about a potential FTC fine if he turned his microphone on.
“Go f— yourself,” Green (if my lip reading is correct) could be seen saying back at Laviolette during the exchange.
The line brawl occurred due to Laviolette’s player, Matt Rempe, playing dangerously and injuring two Devils players in previous games, Jonas Siegenthaler and Nathan Bastian. The Rangers enforcer turned down a fight to settle the score in the previous matchup where he injured Siegenthaler, thus turning the start of Devils-Rangers IV into an, uh, toughness measuring contest.
“Obviously, five fights to start the game,” Green said postgame. “I don’t know if anyone was expecting that. It’s an emotional game.”
Added Laviolette, in his classic comment, but not really comment word salad, “I think it’s probably just emotions more than anything. Coaches, players, whatever it is. There’s obviously a bit between the two teams. I just think emotions get in there. How’s that for vague?”
Green, however, was more than willing to comment on what he thought was the absurdity of Laviolette having an issue with him in the first place.
“I look over and he’s yelling, talking to me,” Green said. “I’m more than willing to go and talk to him and I have no idea why Peter was mad, to be honest. For two reasons.
“For starters, they more or less, their players were lining up fights before the face-off 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. I have no idea why Peter would have been upset and again, that’s not on me why he’s upset.”
Perhaps, Peter should have worked through it inside the room.
The Rangers ended up winning the game 4-3 after a tip-in by Chris Kreider with under five minutes remaining in regulation. The Rangers pace the Eastern Conference with 106 standings points and would play Washington if the playoffs started today.
