The New York Rangers came away with a 4-3 win over the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday night, but the line brawl that took place at the beginning of the game caught the attention of the hockey world. Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette reiterated that the brawl was not planned ahead of the game.
“We had no idea that was happening,” Peter Laviolette said, via Vince Mercogliano of lohud. “We assumed that there would be one fight, so whatever came from the other side, came from the other side. Our guys were ready to battle.”
While Laviolette made it clear that he did not plan out the brawl, and seemingly did not want it to happen, Matt Rempe seemed to be enjoying the aftermath.
“That was a banger,” Rempe said, via Mercogliano.
Rempe has done a lot of fighting so far in his career with the Rangers. This brawl stemmed back to Rempe’s hit on Jonas Siegenthaler on March 11 which resulted in him being suspended by the NHL for four games.
Rangers’ Matt Rempe impressed by K’Andre Miler’s fighting skills
Rempe said he was impressed by his teammates’ fighting skills, especially defenseman K’Andre Miller.
“I was watching back and I saw Key (K’Andre Miller),” Rempe said, via Mercogliano. “I was pretty fired up. That was pretty wicket. He did the little man (hand motion) or something like that. That was unbelievable.”
Rempe was not the only one who seemed to enjoy the aftermath of the brawl, as K’Andre Miller described what led to him fighting John Marino.
“I was watching the fireworks go off, and all of a sudden I saw (John Marino) come over our side of the ice,” Miller said, via Mercogliano. “He looked at me, kind of gave me a nod. I was like, ‘Eh, why not?’ I thought it was going to be a bad idea. I guess he found out.”
Miller has never fought in his career before Wednesday, so it was interesting to see him drop the gloves with John Marino. When looking at the video, he definitely got the better of Marino. Though Miller is a much bigger player.
More importantly for the Rangers, they got a win to bring their point total to 106 on the season. That is the most in the league, one point more than the Dallas Stars for the President’s Trophy race. New York is three points ahead of the Boston Bruins for first in the Eastern Conference, and both teams have six games to play.
The Rangers are also closer to clinching the Metropolitan Division, as they are now five points ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes, who do have a game in hand.
New York would like to close out the season with at least the top spot in the Eastern Conference, if not the President’s Trophy. That would mean they likely avoid an experienced Tampa Bay Lightning team in the first round, and would end up facing a weaker opponent like the Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals, Detroit Red Wings or New York Islanders.
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