NHL: New York Rangers Fall 1-0 to the New Jersey Devils; Are the Refs to Blame?

The New York Rangers lost in a shutout to the New Jersey Devils last night.

Most Devils fans would say that the win was fair.

Rangers fans would certainly disagree.

Last night's officiating was . . . questionable at best.

Besides the most notable call—the penalty Marian Gaborik for goalie interference with four seconds left on a crucial scoring play—calls were going against the Rangers all night.

Anton Stralman's stick holding penalty was one example of a call that shouldn't have been made.

I know, I sound like a complaining Rangers fan who should just accept the loss.  But I refuse.

Sure, some of the calls could have gone either way and I admit that.  

Normally I wouldn't complain about that, but those calls almost always went to the Devils.

The home team is normally favored, but the Rangers received nothing of the kind last night.

Now, I know that the refs cannot be entirely faulted.  Yes, the Rangers should have played much better. However, the officiating shifted the momentum towards the Devils in a big way.

The final play of the game was simply the icing on the cake. It was the climax of terrible calls throughout the night, a night fans wish they didn't have to sit through.

In all honesty, last night's game brought me back to the third period of the Winter Classic. Extremely one-sided calls nearly took the game away from the Rangers on that cold winter day on January 2nd.

Unfortunately for the Rangers , bad calls cost them the game last night.

This time around, John Tortorella bit his tongue and chose not to speak out against the referees, saying nothing about biased calls.

He did not do the same after the Winter Classic, blatantly accusing the NHL of trying to fix the game.

Could these actions be coming back to haunt Tortorella? Only time will tell. 

Until then, let's hope the Rangers next bout against the Tampa Bay Lightning is called down the middle.