Rangers coach Peter Laviolette was very diplomatic when it came to addressing his screaming match with Devils bench boss Travis Green while all hell broke loose on the ice in the opening seconds of Wednesday night’s Blueshirts victory at Madison Square Garden.
Green, on the other hand, was a bit more blunt when speaking with reporters about it.
“As far Peter and I go, I look over and he’s yelling, talking to me,” Green said after his team’s loss.
As Matt Rempe and Kurtis MacDermid, along with every other Ranger and Devils starter, squared off against the other in a full-on line brawl, TNT cameras caught the two rival head coaches jawing at each other for at least 30 seconds with both men being very animated toward the other.
Green questioned why Laviolette was mad in the first place and that the Rangers coach had a very good understanding of why the game descended into chaos two seconds in.
“I’m more than willing to go and talk to him and I have no idea why Peter was mad, to be honest,” he said. “For starters they more or less, their players were lining up for fights before the faceoff 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 it was obvious that they didn’t want it to happen that game.
“I have no idea why Peter would have been upset and that’s not on me why he’s upset.”
The bad blood had been brewing between the Devils and Rangers after Rempe’s particularly physical style had led to two ugly hits on Devils players — and included an elbow to the face of Jonas Siegenthaler on March 11 that resulted in a four-game suspension for the Blueshirt’s young tough guy.
Rempe had already enraged MacDermid that particular game when he refused to drop the gloves before the hit.
Laviolette acknowledged that there was “a little bit between the two teams” and said that the run-in with green was just the “emotions” of the game.
“That’s part of it,” Green responded when told of the Rangers’ coach’s comments. “I have no problem with it, but if you’re gonna start yelling you’re gonna get it back and, like I said, none of this could have happened if there was one fight the game before.”
The Rangers are down to six games left in the season after Wednesday’s win and a trip to the playoffs has already been locked in, while the loss stings for the Devils who are trying to keep their slim postseason chances alive.
The Devils and Rangers do not play again this season.
