Brawl-filled game sets stage for Flyers-Devils season series

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NEWARK, N.J. — Once all the flying fists had settled Thursday night, Nick Cousins stood in the visiting locker room, cleaned up in dress clothes.
 
It was the calm after the storm as Royal Rumble between the Flyers and Devils had finally ceased at the Prudential Center.
 
Cousins smiled just slightly and offered some appropriate foreshadowing.
 
“Should be a good rivalry here this year,” he said. “Two teams that don’t like each other. I’m excited for the next game.”
 
The next four, really.
 
The Metropolitan Division counterparts play five times this season. If meeting No. 1 is any indication of what’s next, the season series shouldn’t lack for zest whatsoever.
 
Before the commencement of the NHL’s holiday break, the Flyers were decked by New Jersey, 4-0. Neither team was quite in the Christmas spirit just yet.
 
How could you tell? The first period happened.
 
Brawls and scrums took the place of shots and goals.
 
Dale Weise traded blows with Seth Helgeson.
 
Cousins, 23, fought 34-year-old veteran Michael Cammalleri.
 
Roughing penalties were handed out like free samples.
 
A few unsportsmanlike calls were thrown in.
 
All in all, 46 total penalty minutes accrued — and most of it took just the final six minutes in the opening stanza (see video).
 
“Hey, that’s hockey,” Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said. “All kinds of stuff happens on the ice. That’s hockey. I’ve got no issues with whatever goes on during the game. We deal with that in the game.”
 
Devils general manager Ray Shero riled up his bunch, which had lost seven straight entering the day.
 
“They played hard,” Wayne Simmonds said. “I guess they answered their GM’s call.”
 
They used Brandon Manning’s hit as their sparkplug.
 
The Flyers’ defenseman checked Sergey Kalinin while trying to reverse direction as the puck did. In some ways, the hit looked inadvertent and more like a collision of sorts.
 
“There wasn’t even a penalty called on it,” Simmonds said, “so it couldn’t have been that bad.”
 
How did Manning see it?
 
“He kind of ran into me,” Manning said. “I was looking to jump on the rush and the puck was turned over and I went to turn back and he must have had his head down. I haven’t seen it again, but I didn’t even know. He kind of just ran into me.”
 
Kalinin was slow to his feet and that’s all New Jersey needed.
 
It was on.
 
“I think everyone kind of reacted to the hit there and it kind of snowballed,” Manning said. “We’ve got a group of guys that are willing to stick up for each other and that’s good to see, but I think we lost our focus a little bit there and got off our game plan.”
 
Simmonds said he wasn’t surprised by the fieriness because “every divisional game is pretty emotional.”
 
Playing in only his third game of the season, Devils forward Luke Gazdic was called for roughing and made certain his presence was felt.
 
“I think Gazdic was looking for a fight all night,” Cousins said. “He was sort of running around out there trying to fight Manning.”
 
Manning wasn’t bothered by New Jersey’s reaction.
 
“You see your own guy laying on the ice, you’ve got guys like Gazdic out there, that’s their role,” he said. “It would be the same thing if it was one of our guys. I understand where they’re coming from.”
 
The physicality and combativeness never subsided. The game finished with 23 penalties for 82 minutes.
 
Both teams next meet on Jan. 21 at the Wells Fargo Center.
 
Who knows what’s in store?
 
“Guys are going to stick up for each other, that’s what our team’s about,” Cousins said. “They came out hard in their own building and took it to us. … We had no push back.”
 
They’ll have four more games to do it.

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