Ottawa Senators Head Coach Travis Green and His Team's Infamous Line Brawl This Year with the New York Rangers

New Ottawa Senators coach Travis Green showed in April that he believes in settling scores.

On March 4th, Green was promoted to interim head coach of the New Jersey Devils, taking over from the fired Lindy Ruff. A month later, as they faced the New York Rangers, Green and the Devils decided it was time to sort out Ranger rookie Matthew Rempe who had been running around in the back half of last season.

Rempe is a highly physical 6-foot-7, 241-pound rookie forward who had two previous run-ins with the Devils last season.

Rempe was ejected after he checked New Jersey forward Nathan Bastian in the head during a 5-1 win for the Rangers on February 22nd. Devils defenceman Jonas Siegenthaler unwisely stepped up to defend Bastian, and Rempe one-punched him to the ice.

Then, during the Rangers' 3-1 win on March 11th, Rempe elbowed Siegenthaler in the head and gave him a concussion. Devils heavyweight defenceman Kurtis MacDermid was furious and took a misconduct penalty, unsuccessfully trying to get at Rempe.

Rempe was ejected from the game and later received a four-game suspension. He wasn't exactly remorseful about the incident either, waving "bye-bye" to the Devils bench as he was escorted off the ice.

That was the final straw. On April 3rd, when the Devils played in New York, Green went with three defencemen on the opening faceoff. He started former 67 Kevin Bahl and John Marino on the blue line, which was a fairly typical alignment.

But Green suddenly had 6-foot-5, 233-pound defenceman Kurtis MacDermid at left wing, ready to rumble in a position that would be directly opposite Rempe. MacDermid has dealt with bigger men before, although there aren't many. He twice took down Seattle's Jamie Oleksiak, the biggest player in the NHL.

This one now felt like a gunfight in an old western. Cool Hand MacDermid stood on the street, calling out Matty the Kid.

But whether the duel would actually happen was up to Rangers' head coach Peter Laviolette. As the home coach, Laviolette got to submit his starting lineup after seeing Green's. Laviolette not only obliged, putting Rempe at right wing as Green had hoped, but he also sent a message of his own. He escalated the matter by starting bigger players like K'Andre Miller, Barclay Goodrow, and Jacob Trouba.

When the puck dropped, MacDermid and Rempe settled their score with an absolute marathon bout. But Goodrow also seemed to have an axe to grind. He ignored former Senator Chris Tierney, his opposing centre, and skated up to Bahl, who he had fought the previous season.

Former Senator Curtis Lazar got busy right away with Jimmy Vesey, the only two who weren't ejected. And that left Tierney and Marino to get walloped by Trouba and Miller.

If all that wasn't enough, Green and Laviolette looked like they wanted a piece of each other as well, screaming at each other from their benches. It appeared for a moment like they were doing to jump over the top of broadcaster Darren Pang and start pounding on each other.

Yes, it was quite a night on Broadway.

“There was a lot going on. Obviously, there were five fights to start the game,” Green told the media after the game. “I don’t know if anyone was expecting that. It was an emotional game.

“As far as Peter and I go, I look over and he’s yelling, talking to me. I’m more than willing to go and talk to him. And I have no idea why Peter was mad.

"For starters, their players were lining up fights before the faceoff...And none of it would have happened if something had happened in the game before."

Green coached his last game as Devils interim coach on April 15th, 12 days later. At the team's season-ending media availability, Green said he was keen to stay on full-time, but GM Tom Fitzgerald was non-committal at that point and wanted to interview some other people first.

The Senators swooped in and hired Green on May 7th. Two weeks later, New Jersey hired Sheldon Keefe.

It remains to be seen whether Green will succeed in Ottawa, but after what we saw in New York back in the spring, it won't be because he lacks emotion or fails to stand up for his players.

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