Rangers-Devils game starts with wild line brawl, eight ejections and a Matt Rempe fight

NEW YORK — A melee broke out at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.

The fireworks between New York Rangers rookie Matt Rempe and New Jersey Devils tough guy Kurtis MacDermid were expected, but all 10 skaters on the ice ended up dropping the gloves in the opening seconds.

The result was game misconduct penalties for Rempe, Barclay Goodrow, K’Andre Miller and Jacob Trouba on the New York side, and MacDermid, Kevin Bahl, John Marino and Chris Tierney for New Jersey. That meant both teams would have to play the remainder of the game with four fewer players available on the bench.

The Rempe-MacDermid beef carried over from the Rangers’ 3-1 win on Mar. 11, when Rempe declined MacDermid’s repeated challenges throughout the game before concussing Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler with an elbow that led to a four-game suspension.

“First shift I asked him (to fight). There's a bit of a code, and I thought he would answer that. I don't know what he was told, but he said, 'No,'" MacDermid said at the time. "After a hit like that, it kind of goes without saying that you should answer the bell and be a man about it. ... There's a right way to go about things and a wrong way. I kind of lost a lot of respect for him tonight."

That led to Wednesday's highly anticipated bout, which began with a few heavy blows from MacDermid but saw Rempe hang in tough until the end. Both brawlers continued to throw punches well after the other four fights had ended.

Rempe was a healthy scratch in each of the previous three games and remains on the bubble to make the cut for the Rangers' playoff lineup. He's been effective in spurts, but has now been assessed nearly as many penalty minutes (69) as total time on ice (76).

Head coach Peter Laviolette recently said he'd like to see him avoid staged fights and show what he can do within the flow of the game, but the action seems to follow the 6-foot-8, 241-pounder around.

"You can't go fight everybody that you hit," Laviolette said. "You have to play your game, do your thing. He's got no restrictions, but in the same sense, I don't think it's smart to (fight) in second No. 1. I'd like to see him go play the game and establish his game out there."

Rempe has expressed his desire to do just that, but it's been easier said than done with many of the NHL's toughest enforcers gunning for him.

"I know I can be an effective player inside the rules of the game," he said upon returning from his suspension.

Vincent Z. Mercogliano is the New York Rangers beat reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Read more of his work at lohud.com/sports/rangers/ and follow him on Twitter @vzmercogliano.