Rangers coach Peter Laviolette was very diplomatic when it came to his screaming match with Devils bench boss Travis Green as all hell broke loose on the ice in the first seconds of the Blueshirts’ victory Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.
Green, on the other hand, was a little more blunt when speaking to reporters about it.
“When Peter and I go, I look and he’s yelling, he’s talking to me,” Green said after his team’s loss.
As Matt Rempe and Kurtis MacDermid, along with every other Rangers and Devils starter, faced off in an online brawl, TNT cameras captured the two rival head coaches snapping at each other for at least 30 seconds, both men being very animated towards each other.
Green wondered why Laviolette was angry in the first place and that the Rangers coach understood very well why the game descended into chaos after two seconds.
“I’m more than willing to go and talk to him and I have no idea why Peter was angry, to be honest,” he said. “For starters, their players were more or less lining up to fight before the faceoff and none of this would have happened, and we all know why it happened tonight. None of this would have happened if something had happened in the previous match, when it was obvious they didn’t want it to happen in this match.
“I have no idea why Peter would have been upset and it’s not my fault why he’s upset.”
Tensions were brewing between the Devils and Rangers after Rempe’s particularly physical style led to two nasty hits on Devils players – and included an elbow to Jonas Siegenthaler’s face on March 11 that led to a suspension of four games for the Blueshirt. young tough guy.
Rempe had already angered MacDermid in this particular match when he refused to drop the gloves before the hit.
Laviolette acknowledged there was “a little bit between the two teams” and said the confrontation with Green was just the “emotions” of the match.
“That’s part of it,” Green responded when informed of the Rangers coach’s comments. “I have no problem with that, but if you start shouting you will get it back and, like I said, none of this could have happened if there had been a fight in the previous match .”
The Rangers have just six games left in the season after Wednesday’s win and a trip to the playoffs is already assured, while the loss stings the Devils as they try to keep their slim playoff chances alive.
The Devils and Rangers are no longer playing this season.
New York Post
