Red Wings forward Tomas Tatar celebrates his goal while Devil goalie Cory Schneider looks on.
AP Photo/Julio Cortez

It’s understood that officials make mistakes. They are human. Errors are part of sports. Some worse than others. In the Devils’ case, they had a bad one go against them. Trailing by a goal with over a minute left, they were hoping to get Cory Schneider to the bench for an extra attacker. The unlucky goalie can’t seem to catch a break. Two days removed from a wild shootout defeat against the Canadiens, he played a loose puck to a teammate when the whistle blew. Right away, referee Frederick L’Ecuyer signaled a Delay Of Game minor penalty on Schneider leading to hot protests from an incensed Pete DeBoer.

Schneider was incorrectly cited for Rule 27.8. Playing the puck outside the restricted area. The silly trapezoid rule has been in existence since ’05-06. Loosely interpreted by knowledgeable hockey observers as the Brodeur Rule, it puts more emphasis on communication between goalies and defensemen. Here’s the full description below.

27.8 Restricted Area – A goalkeeper shall not play the puck outside of the designated area behind the net. This area shall be defined by lines that begin six feet (6’) from either goal post and extend diagonally to points twenty-eight feet (28’) apart at the end boards. Should the goalkeeper play the puck outside of the designated area behind the goal line, a minor penalty for delay of game shall be imposed. The determining factor shall be the position of the puck. The minor penalty will not be assessed when a goalkeeper plays the puck while maintaining skate contact with his goal crease.

Unfortunately, L’Ecuyer guessed wrong. He was behind the play when Schneider played the puck inside the line. That is what matters here. Part of Schneider’s body was over the line but not his goalie stick or the puck. It shouldn’t have been called. A post from The Hockey Writer’s Chris Wassel clearly shows that L’Ecuyer messed up. Making matters worse, Tomas Tatar scored a power play goal off the faceoff to put the game away with 1:03 left. Essentially, the Devils didn’t even have a chance to come back. Even if their performance was awful, it deserved a better ending. Detroit held New Jersey to 11 shots tying a franchise low at home.

”I don’t know,” DeBoer said regarding inserting instant replay on such controversial judgment calls. ”I’m not looking to solve it, just get it right.”

”We didn’t cash in (on) some of our chances. We have to be opportunistic. We have to find a way to score two or three and we didn’t do that,” he added after his team dropped its third in a row.

”It’s easy to look at the shot clock and say that (11 shots on goal is not enough). We’ve generated 21 shots and generated the same amount of scoring chances. (If the shot clock says) 21, you feel better about it? It doesn’t matter.”

The Devils don’t have any time to dwell on it. They visit the Hudson rival Rangers Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. New Jersey has taken the first two games winning the first meeting in Newark 4-0 on Oct. 19 and the second at MSG 3-2 on Nov. 12. The third meeting of five is the last one before the teams meet at Yankee Stadium as pat of the Stadium Series on January 26, 2014. The fifth and final match is slated for March 22.