Tempers have been boiling over between the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers for over a month. Things escalated after Matt Rempe delivered a dangerous hit to Nathan Bastian and then reached a fever pitch after an elbow on Jonas Siegenthaler. That night Rempe refused to drop the gloves to defend his actions.
On the play every player on the ice dropped the gloves in a rare line brawl. The referees decided to eject Jacob Trouba, K'Andre Miller, John Marino, Chris Tierney, Matt Rempe and Kurtis MacDermid.