Kings 3, Devils 0: Blanked again

A defeat in Los Angeles once again came by way of shutout.

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The New Jersey Devils’ proneness to being blanked reared its ugly head again Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

Here are a few thoughts on the game:

A word on goalie interference

Timo Meier’s goal being disallowed due to goaltender interference was naturally a hot topic in a game the Devils were held to zero goals.

I thought Stefan Noesen’s impact on Darcy Kuemper’s ability to make a save was marginal. If he never brushed jerseys with Kuemper, I could see that sequence still playing out the same way. From that respect, I get the frustration.

Honestly, though, the review process was more off-putting than the call itself. If the officials believed that was interference by the letter of the law and Noesen hampered Kuemper’s ability to make a save, that’s fine.

But calling it a goal on the ice and taking, what, 3-4 minutes to review it before overturning doesn’t make much sense to me.

The point of the replay process is to erase clear and obvious errors. Generally speaking, I don’t think goals should be overturned if it takes that long to determine a mistake was made.

It would take, what, 6 seconds to watch the entire sequence? Thus, an official should be able to watch numerous times, confirm a decision, and be ready to announce it in the blink of an eye.

That it took several minutes leads me to believe a real consideration had to be made, at which point I don’t know how you justify it as a clear blown call.

How the game would have played out if the goal stood is anyone’s guess. At the end of the day, though, I don’t think the Devils did enough over 60 minutes to feel hard done by leaving the ice empty-handed.

The Devils ran out of gas