A full-fledged brawl erupted just two seconds into the New York Rangers versus New Jersey Devils game at Madison Square Garden.
Before a single minute of play had elapsed, eight players - four from each team - were ejected.
The primary altercation was between Rangers' forward Matt Rempe and Devils' defenseman Kurtis MacDermid, who continued their skirmish at center ice after other players had separated them.
In a previous meeting at Madison Square Garden, 21-year-old Rempe had declined to fight MacDermid early in the game.
After this latest incident, MacDermid expressed respect for Rempe, acknowledging him as a young player trying to establish himself in the league.
"It's great to see the team bonding that way and just having each other's backs out there," said MacDermid.
"After a situation like that, the rest of the team accepted a lot of the slack in the minutes and they played hard and had an awesome game tonight. Just didn't get the two points."
The Rangers ultimately won 4-3 after Chris Kreider scored a power-play goal late in the game.
Jacob Trouba, K'Andre Miller, Barclay Goodrow, and Rempe were ejected from the Rangers, while Kevin Bahl, John Marino, Chris Tierney, and MacDermid were ejected from the Devils.
Additionally, Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette and Devils interim head coach Travis Green engaged in a heated exchange after the brawl.
Green explained to reporters, "There was a lot going on. Obviously, there were five fights to start the game. I don't know if anyone was expecting that.
It's an emotional game."
"As far as Peter and I go, I look over and he's yelling, talking to me and I'm more than willing to go and talk to him and I have no idea why Peter was mad."
He added: "Their players were lining up fights before the faceoff and none of this would have happened ... if something happened the game before."