Chaos sparked at Madison Square Garden on April 3rd, 2024, with a line brawl leading to 8 ejections. This is a domino effect from the nights that came before. Rangers/Devils lined up for the first of their 3 meetings on February 22nd. In this matchup, the 21-year-old Matt Rempe came and boarded forward Nathan Bastian causing him to be out for the season.
The Rangers gained an edge and won 5-1. It didn’t end there because when they met again on March 11th, this game would be a fight night with 21-year-old Matt Rempe elbowing defenseman Jonas Siegnthaler causing him to be out with a concussion. He was ejected and issued a four-game NHL suspension. This didn’t change anything and he kept up his work as a bandit. Nothing but fights erupted throughout the night but the score ultimately was 3-1 Rangers.
On April 3rd, once again, the match would be nothing but fights with the Devil’s forward/defensemen Kurtis McDermid and Matt Rempe coming into the lineup. They exchanged words on social media and on the ice but on April 3rd, it was different. Two seconds into the game, the players on the ice all dropped their gloves while punching and shoving causing 8 ejections. The ejected players included: Jacob Trouba, Matt Rempe, K’Andre Miller, and Barclay Goodrow for the Rangers and John Marino, Chris Tierney, Kurtis MacDermid, and Kevin Bahl for the Devils. Devils’ Curtis Lazar and Rangers’ Jimmy Vesey both received penalties for fighting. Ultimately, the Rangers won the season series 3-0 with a score of 4-3.