Rangers and Devils Start Up Early

It took nothing but the drop of the puck for the gloves to also hit the ice in New Jersey last night. That's generally what happens when both coaches decide to start the game with their fourth line.

Mike Rupp and Cam Janssen had a typically long Janssen-esque fight. Rupp landed some punches, while Janssen locked him out best he could, trying to wait it out until Rupp was fatigued. The strategy was starting to work, but Rupp was able to use his reach advantage and lock Janssen out until the linesmen stepped in.

Only a couple of minutes later Brandon Dubinsky and David Clarkson met up after a hit along the boards. A few words later Dubinsky had his gloves off and Clarkson followed suit.

Another taker for Big John

Well, no, not really. Deryk Engelland sent Marcus Kruger flying into the boards. Engelland's arm went straight into a bent-over Kruger's head, making for an awkward reaction and it looked like a nasty hit. John Scott didn't give Engelland much of a choice at that point and was able to use his albatross-like wingspan to control the fight easily. If he and Zdeno Chara keep fighting I'm going to run out of bird wingspan metaphors; and if they fight each other, Mike Cvik better be around or the pictures of it will look like something out of Gulliver's Travels.

Scott received the instigator package. Engelland received no extra penalty on the play.