Referees hand Carolina Hurricanes the game with ridiculous call on Timo Meier

The New Jersey Devils lost to the Carolina Hurricanes on 5-2. It looks like the Devils were handled by their division rival, but in reality, that couldn't be further from the truth. The Devils and Hurricanes were going shot for shot until the middle of the third period. Then, an absolutely insane call was made.

Before we get into the call, the game was really fun. Both teams scored two goals, with the Devils taking the lead both times and the Hurricanes responding. This was a game the NHL should lift up as a reason to watch hockey. It was chippy enough without being dirty. The goals were interesting, with the Devils getting one from Paul Cotter (good for you ending the shneide) and Ondrej Palat, and the Hurricanes getting goals from Dmitry Orlov and Sebastian Aho.

Then, the referees took the game over. Let's share the video of the "incident" where Timo Meier ran knee to knee with Martin Necas with the Carolina Hurricanes commentary.

We get the optics of calling a penalty here. Hitting a knee usually gets a penalty, and the Hurricanes were getting a penalty themselves for roughing. It's totally fair to call consequential minor penalties. We don't think Meier committed an infraction, but sure, call the penalty.

To call a major penalty there has no actual logic behind it. Meier clearly didn't have intent with his hit. Necas had the puck the entire time. Meier's knee never moved or left the ice. He was leading with his shoulder and elbow without going after the head. And the most important factor was that Necas moved AT THE LAST SECOND. He adjusted his body, and his knee was placed in a dangerous position, not the other way around.

There were multiple bad calls during the game, including a missed interference call on Luke Hughes that caused Jack Hughes to take a penalty to avoid a one-on-one attempt on Jake Allen, but there was nothing like the call on Meier. There's nothing that says he should have been called for a major. The fact that Toronto confirmed the call shows they won't go against their refs when they are this wrong.

The game was 2-2 at the time of the penalty, and the Devils never recovered after the Hurricanes scored a goal on the power play.

We understand the Hurricanes scored two more goals after that, but it's clear that the game changed on the call. Necas was 'hurt" but managed to play again 90 seconds after the game re-started. Funny how that works.

This Paul Cotter quote via Amanda Stein of the New Jersey Devils really tells the story we're trying to tell here.

"“I think there was an injury there that might have been blown out of proportion there by the player and our team didn’t like it, so maybe a little extra physical and they pushed back… it happens.”"

Paul Cotter via Amanda Stein

The Devils lost the game. These games happen. In the grand scheme of things, it won't really matter, but this is a call that should not be happening. Maybe the team in Toronto took Timo Meier's one-game suspension from earlier in the season into account. They absolutely shouldn't, and it better not lead to further discipline. On to Anaheim.