21-year-old forward Matt Rempe is making his first season in the NHL and has already made a name for himself – but not primarily for his play but for his appetite for fighting.
The last time the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils met, Rempe received a match penalty after an elbow tackle on Jonas Siegenthaler. Afterwards, Rempe picked a fight with Kurtis MacDemid.
– You don’t do that during your first year in the league. I lost a lot of respect for him, MacDermid said at the time.
All players in fights
Now they were pitted against each other again.
The players’ fourth chains were set against each other immediately and just over a second after the referee released the puck, the chaos was a fact.
Matt Rempe and Kurtis MacDermid battled each other and the rest followed.
“Never would have happened if…”
Even the coaches were emotional and yelled at each other.
– This would never have happened if Rempe had won the fight last game, says Devils coach Travis Green.
After the boxing matches, eight of the players received match penalties except for the two who were deemed to have started the fight (Jimmy Vesey and Curtis Lazar), due to the “secondary altercation” rule.
The Rangers then won the match 4-3.