Travis Green looked a lot like one of his fellow former Vancouver Canucks head coaches during the New Jersey Devils’ feisty contest against the New York Rangers on Wednesday night.
The Devils and Rangers engaged in a full-fledged line brawl right off the opening faceoff in the first period, with enforcers Matt Rempe and Kurtis MacDermid dropping the gloves for a much-awaited heavyweight tilt at centre ice.
Green, the Devils’ interim head coach, and Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette facilitated the tone-setting fight by putting the two face-punchers in their respective starting lineups for the game, and it certainly seems as though no love was lost between the two bench bosses.
Much like former Canucks and Rangers head coach John Tortorella did many times during his own years at Madison Square Garden, Green got into a screaming match with Laviolette as his players exchanged fisticuffs on the ice.
In many ways, the back-and-forth between Green and Laviolette looked a lot like the confrontation between Tortorella and former Calgary Flames head coach Bob Hartley during the infamous Canucks/Flames line brawl back in the 2013-14 season. No word yet on whether Green tried to go down the hallway to the Rangers’ dressing room during the first period of Wednesday’s game.
The Devils and Rangers ended up combining for 166 penalty minutes at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, with eight different players — four from each team — being ejected from the game as a result of the line brawl just two seconds into the first period.
Since Green replaced former head coach Lindy Ruff, who was relived of his duties on March 4, the Devils have failed to substantially improve their standing in the Eastern Conference playoff race. With their 4-3 loss to the Rangers on Thursday, the Devils fell to 36-36-4 with just 76 points in 76 games this season.
Green, 56, previously served as head coach of the Canucks from 2017 to 2021. Although the Castlegar, BC product helped the Canucks reach the 2020 COVID-19 bubble playoffs, the team was on track for yet another non-playoff season when Bruce Boudreau replaced him behind the bench on December 5, 2021.
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