New York Post Sports is joking that Devils and Oilers fans are getting five-minute penalties after a fight in the stands last night.
The joke has a real scene behind it. During Tuesday night's game, fans of the two teams collided in the crowd, with several men throwing punches and shoving each other down the bleachers.
The New York Post Sports account quipped that the fans involved deserved 5 minute penalties for fighting.
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Security appeared to break up the scrum at the end of the video. Nothing in what we have says how it started, how many people were involved or whether anyone was removed from the building.
The game itself delivered plenty of heat. New Jersey beat Edmonton 4-3 in a shootout, and Jack Hughes did most of the damage with two goals and an assist.
That's the kind of night that sends a building into overdrive, and a shootout finish only adds to it. Fans trade chirps all game, the result hangs until the last shooter, and a few people clearly couldn't leave it at chirps.
Why a Devils and Oilers crowd got this loud
Both teams are playing well enough to make every game feel big. The Devils are 8-2-0 over their last 10 and sit 2nd in the Metropolitan Division.
Edmonton leads the Pacific Division and still owns a 7-0-1 road record, so the Oilers arrived in New Jersey as one of the best teams in the league. A matchup like that was always going to draw a charged crowd.
Fighting is part of hockey when players drop the gloves, with a referee, a five-minute major and a rule book attached. In the bleachers there is none of that, only people who can get hurt and a night that gets remembered for the wrong reasons.
The Post got its laugh out of the penalty box joke, and the joke works. But a game that ended on a shootout and a Hughes highlight reel should be the story, and now it's sharing space with a crowd shot.
Both clubs are back in action Thursday. The Devils face the Blues, while the Oilers take on the Ducks.
Should fans caught fighting in NHL arenas be banned for life?
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