Jacob Markstrom and Igor Shesterkin take part in a goalie fight

The New Jersey Devils did not show up for their tilt with the New York Rangers on Tuesday. As of this writing, they just allowed their Hudson River Rivals to stop a 5-on-3 advantage, scoring zero goals at this point in the third period despite being in a deficit the entire time. It wasn’t the effort or the pushback we wanted.

Unfortunately, the Devils won’t be able to sweep the season series with the Rangers despite playing well as of late. It was a depressing result for a 2025-26 season that has had a lot of them. Nothing good comes from the 25-26 Devils. Sweeping the Rangers were the last thing we had going for us fans, but now that’s off the table now.

We at least got something to be excited about. A goalie fight. We almost never get to see one with the Devils, but it finally happened. 

Jacob Markstrom and Igor Shesterkin battled in the middle of the third period. It wasn’t the best fight in the world, but Markstrom was adamant he wanted to do something, and that something was punching a Rangers player in the face. 

To be fair, Markstrom did not have a good game, but at least this will be the memory of this game. He tried to get a few punches in, but it was clear that the Russian goalie took home the win in that fight. 

The Devils-Rangers series has seen multiple full-line brawls, a ton of ejections, and insane levels of animosity, but it’s never seen a goalie fight based on our research. 

Corey Schwab had a famous goalie fight against the New York Islanders in 1995, but Martin Brodeur was not the fighting type. Well, he wasn’t the “fighting a goalie” type. He would fight players all the time, and he could even draw penalties that way.

This goalie fight didn’t help the Devils win, but it helped our entertainment value. And that’s something!