Warning: Story contains coarse language.

Vegas Golden Knights forward Jonathan Marchessault believes the New Jersey Devils could've avoided the brouhaha that occurred between the two clubs at the end of Thursday night's game.

With 25 seconds left in the game and the Golden Knights leading 5-3, Devils head coach Lindy Ruff lined up 6-foot-4, 227-pound defenseman Mason Geertsen at forward for the ensuing faceoff.

Here's what went down:

Geertsen and Vegas captain Alex Pietrangelo started the skirmish, leading to lots of pushing, shoving, and grabbing. Golden Knights goalie Robin Lehner swung his stick at a New Jersey player who appeared ready to scrap. Lehner, Pietrangelo, and Geertsen were all handed 10-minute misconducts.

"I think it was some bullshit. (Ruff) was probably just mad that Jack Hughes got hit there and nothing happened in the moment," Marchessault said, referring to Zach Whitecloud's open-ice hit on the Devils phenom earlier in the contest:

"At the end of the day (Geertsen) is the one who gave up that fourth goal, so I think it's kind of gutless," Marchessault said. "You put a defenseman, a tough guy, to line up at forward when there's 25 seconds left. That's shitty, but that's what those older, veteran coaches do sometimes."

Geersten took himself out of position to make a hit on Pietrangelo earlier in the game, leading to Nicolas Roy's game-winning goal.

The blue-liner entered Thursday with zero points and 41 PIMs in nine career NHL games. Geersten's recorded three AHL seasons of 100-plus PIMs and only one with double-digit points.

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