{"id":329135,"date":"2025-12-04T02:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T02:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/329135\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T02:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T02:07:08","slug":"blue-jackets-dean-evason-fires-back-at-devils-head-coach-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/329135\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jackets Dean Evason Fires Back at Devils Head Coach Comments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/nhl\/new-jersey-devils\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Jersey Devils<\/a> and Columbus Blue Jackets are division rivals, but they\u2019re seemingly consummating a legitimate rivalry. The on-ice product Monday night in New Jersey\u2019s 5-3 loss was evidence enough. However, now the head coaches are involved.<\/p>\n<p>In the second period of Monday\u2019s tilt, and in <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/nhl\/new-jersey-devils\/nhl-devils-warmup-helmet-violation\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brenden Dillon<\/a>\u2018s 1,000th NHL game, the Devils defenseman took a few punches from Blue Jackets forward, Dmitri Voronkov before he could even get his gloves off. The result was Dillon face-planting to the ice in a scary scene.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/nhl\/new-jersey-devils\/devils-sheldon-keefe-calls-out-blue-jackets-dmitri-voronkov-brenden-dillon-ambush\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sheldon Keefe<\/a> did not like Voronkov\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Dillon] would never do something like that to another player,\u201d Keefe said in a pointed response. \u201cThat I know for certain. Yeah, I don\u2019t like it. I don\u2019t think Dillon knows he\u2019s in a fight, and he\u2019s tackled from behind. Before he knows it, his helmet\u2019s off, his jersey is over his head, and we saw what happened from there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He finished his thoughts by highlighting Dillon\u2019s character.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll I know is there is no more honorable player in this league than Brenden Dillon. He plays as hard and honest game as anybody in the league,\u201d Keefe said.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, Blue Jackets head coach fired back at Keefe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe saw (Keefe\u2019s) comments,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Aportzline\/status\/1996253870322827413\" rel=\"nofollow\">Evason said<\/a>. \u201cThey have no bearing on our room.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It should be noted that there was no supplementary discipline handed out to either side by the NHLs Department of Player Safety.<\/p>\n<p>However, Jonas Siegenthaler was tossed from Monday\u2019s game for insufficiently securing his fight strap.<\/p>\n<p>The next time the Devils and Blue Jackets meet is on New Year\u2019s Eve. It\u2019s anticipated that sparks will fly again, after some comments and social media posts made their rounds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m sure it\u2019s going to be quite the match next time we play them,\u201d Paul Cotter said with a sneer on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Mathieu Olivier<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/mark_scheig\/status\/1995909530748703155?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\"> made it be known<\/a> on social media he has the next game vs. the Devils circled on his calendar.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<img alt=\"avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/653da752580c127b7400004f307990a1a1cb9301e374aec9a861e9de1fa09135\"  class=\"avatar avatar-70 photo\" height=\"70\" width=\"70\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"low\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\tJames  is  the  New  Jersey  Devils  beat  reporter  for  New  Jersey  Hockey  Now  on  Sportsnaut  and  the  PHWAs  New  &#8230; More about <a class=\"more-bio\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/author\/james-nichols\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">James Nichols<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Jersey Devils and Columbus Blue Jackets are division rivals, but they\u2019re seemingly consummating a legitimate rivalry.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[392,167203,19928,152839,4822,385,27815,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-329135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","9":"tag-dean-evason","10":"tag-devils","11":"tag-devils-news","12":"tag-new-jersey-devils","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-sheldon-keefe","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}