By At any level of athletics, officials have been criticized for as long as I can remember (sometimes me being the biggest critic). It is one of the hardest day to day jobs that anyone could have in sports. Night in and night out they are constantly being screamed at by players, coaches, and (pre-Covid) a packed house of thousands of fans. Nonetheless, it is what they signed up for as well as the compensation they get for being one of the best officials in the world at their particular sport. Their job does not just affect them, it also has an influence on players’ lives and ultimately their career as they are trying to make a living for themselves and their families. NHL officiating is no different.
NHL officials over the years have been the most scrutinized for their poor decision-making the most out of the four major sports leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL). There always seem to be phantom calls that just are made up or not even called.
For example, the New Jersey Devils were playing the Philadelphia Flyers and a player on the Flyers, Travis Sanheim, was skating to the puck with a New Jersey defender and that defender grabbed Sanheim’s stick as he was trying to reach the puck and the official, who was looking right at the play, called a penalty against Sanheim. Sometimes, it’s hard to think that these are the best officials in the entire world, NHL officiating has seemed subpar. It is also worthy to note that the Devils scored on that power play and it gave them a 2-1 lead.
Who is Tim Peel?
Tim Peel has worked for the NHL for more than 20 years and made his NHL debut on October 21, 1999, as the Colorado Avalanche took on the Ottawa Senators. He has officiated close to 1,400 games in his career which includes 90 playoff games.
Throughout his career, Tim has got the opportunity to officiate in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi as well as the 2012 All-Star Game along with the 2009 and 2017 Winter Classics. His career is well accomplished and the longevity at his craft is amazing.
The Incident
The NHL has created a ton of great content by putting mics on players and referees to help bring more viewers to their product. It has been a hit as far as the outside perspective and being able to capture real-time conversations on the ice during a game.
Unfortunately, the worst-case scenario played out as Tim Peel was caught saying “It wasn’t much, but I wanted to get a f—ing penalty against Nashville early in the …” before the audio cut out. This was caught on the Nashville Predators’ television broadcast as they played the Detroit Red Wings.
Peel, who is 53 years old, was set to retire next month on April 24 but instead, his career ends with a shady allegation of his role in officiating that game Tuesday night. The next day, the NHL came out with a statement basically saying, “Referee Tim Peel no longer will be working NHL games now or in the future.”
What happens now?
In every NHL game, there are a couple of moments where a call is made, and it baffles everyone. This has been referred to as “makeup calls”. This has been going on to help “even the score” and give the team who is losing a chance to make a comeback even if it is not the correct call to make. There was no proof until now that NHL officials do this.
Since Tim Peel was going to retire anyway, this still does not change the problem that the league refuses to address. Actions like this go on every night and there is no accountability from the NHL to help improve the integrity of the game. The play on the ice is awesome and it keeps getting better every year, but the public perception of the NHL is getting worse and worse by each game due to the officiating alone.
I am not saying that officiating is an easy job because it is not. I will tell you firsthand that it’s one of the hardest jobs around. My issue is that these people are supposed to be the best referees in the world and it just does not feel like it. The NHL needs to sit down with their board and talk about different ways to educate their referees to better officiate the game this offseason to improve upon their beautiful game.
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