Life Imitates Art: Rangers-Devils Brawl and 'The Good Wife' The brawl that opened Monday's Rangers-Devils game could not have been a surprise to anyone who saw the starting lineups, which included both teams" top fighters, or anyone who'd watched the games between the teams this season. This one merely upped the ante. This was the third time this season the teams have fought each other at the opening face-off. On Dec. 20, it was Mike Rupp against Cam Janssen three seconds into the game. On Feb. 7, Brandon Prust and Rupp tangled with Eric Boulton and Janssen two seconds into the game. This time Prust fought Janssen and Rupp had Boulton, while Stu Bickel took on Ryan Carter, which turned out to be bloodiest battle of the three. The game was delayed for several minutes as a large pool of Carter's blood was cleaned off the ice. The coaches were also involved in a screaming match during the melee, and traded barbs in their postgame news conferences as well. The Rangers" John Tortorella blamed Devils Coach Peter DeBoer for putting Janssen and Boulton in the starting lineup, "forcing" him to start Prust and Rupp. DeBoer said Tortorella had started a line of fighters in New Jersey, although that was several meetings ago, in the aforementioned Dec. 20 game. "He's either got short-term memory loss or he's a hypocrite," DeBoer told reporters after the game. The bickering continued Tuesday. According to the Rangers" Twitter feed: Tortorella also said, "Fighting is a big part of the game, but it doesn't need to be manufactured. It's really gotten old for me, the staged fights. He added, "I just don't think it's right for the game." But Tortorella then called for an end to the sniping with DeBoer, saying, "He needs to shut up ... and I do as well." It was the sixth game this season that the Rangers, who lead the league in fighting majors, have been involved in a fight in the first 10 seconds. The game-opening brawl came a day after the issue of fighting in hockey had a visible platform as a plotline on an episode of the popular CBS legal drama "The Good Wife." On Sunday night, a fairly straightforward case about a malfunctioning snowmobile turned into a courtroom battle on who bears responsibility for head injuries in hockey. The lawyer for the snowmobile company questioned the plaintiff's driving ability in light of a head injury sustained in a fight that ended the man's hockey career. And with that, the episode, called "Gloves Come Off," took on a very ripped-from-the-headlines feel. The case contained familiar beats for those familiar with the N.H.L. and how it has grappled with head injuries in recent years. There was a coach declaring intent to retaliate in a TV interview. There were players cheating on their baseline concussion tests, so that concussions that would keep them out of games were not diagnosed. There was a Web site called Rinkfights.com, a hardly veiled reference to hockeyfights.com, which allows fans to vote on the winner and review fights. There was a doctor whose concussion testing protocol was rejected by the N.H.L.-like hockey league. There was a threat of a massive class-action suit by retired players, something the N.F.L. is all too familiar with these days. There was even a factually dubious mention of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease found in several deceased hockey players. And, hey, there's Michael J. Fox, a Canadian and a huge hockey fan, playing the lawyer who represented the N.H.L.-like league. According to Nielsen, the episode had a 5.8 rating, with 9.2 million live or DVR viewers. Game 7 of last season's Stanley Cup finals, the highest rated N.H.L. game in 38 years, had a 4.8 rating with 8.5 million viewers. You can watch the full episode of "The Good Wife" here.