The New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils just took the term “opening faceoff” to a whole new level. Wednesday night’s game at Madison Square Garden started with an all-out brawl that saw every single player on the ice drop their gloves and start swinging.

There’s already a history between the two main characters: Rangers forward Matt Rempe and Devils enforcer Kurtis MacDermid.

In a game on Mar. 11, Rempe turned down MacDermid’s invitation to dance, but later laid out Devils defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler with a nasty high elbow, earning himself a four-game suspension.

This time, Rempe and MacDermid made sure to settle their score, trading punches at center ice while their teammates paired off around them. The refs had their hands full, handing out game misconducts to four players from each team just two seconds into the game.

MacDermid, who hadn’t played in the Devils’ last four games, showed a surprising amount of respect for Rempe after the dust settled. “He’s a young kid trying to do his thing. I understand that,” MacDermid said.

Meanwhile, Devils interim head coach Travis Green was less thrilled. Between periods, Green exchanged some heated words with Rangers bench boss Peter Laviolette.

The spectacle didn’t even end there. Later in the first period, the Rangers’ Will Cuylle took exception to a hit by the Devils’ Brendan Smith and dropped the gloves with Dawson Mercer. It was a wild night at the world’s most famous arena, with the Rangers eventually coming out on top 4-3 thanks to a late power-play goal by Chris Kreider.

When asked what triggered the brawl, Green said cryptically, “Something happened the game before.”

Take a look —

The Associated Press contributed to this article.