RefereeTim Peel fired and his past history with the Rangers

The NHL took some stern action following a hot mic episode with referee  Tim Peel.  He has lost his job following a comment he made that was caught on a hot microphone during Tuesday night’s game between Detroit and Nashville.  Peel said that he was looking to call a penalty against the Predators.  After a social media uproar, the NHL canned him.  Does Peel have a history with the New York Rangers?

First, the specifics.  Peel called a tripping penalty early in the second period on Predators forward Viktor Arvidsson. It was  a questionable call and it looked like the Red Wings Jon Merrill might have embellished it. At the next TV timeout, Peel was hear saying  “It wasn’t much, but I wanted to get a f—ing penalty against Nashville early.”

Here’s the hot mic clip. The language is rough, beware:

Here’s the penalty.

And here is the NHL’s statement:

That’s a pretty definitive end to his career as an NHL referee.  It remains to be seen if he will fight it and if the referees’ union will support him.

Peel and the Rangers

It would be great if we could look back and say “Aha, Tim Peel made a bad call ad the Rangers lost!” but there is really no history of Peel making a call against the Rangers that was clearly questionable.

In December 2015, there was a bizarre incident when Peel got into a heated R-rated conversation with Derick Brassard at the Rangers’ bench.  Brassard had an innocuous conversation with linesman Lonnie Cameron.  For some reason Peel took offense and skated to the bench and really laced into a perplexed Brassard.

The New York Post said that Peel was “screaming bloody murder” at Brassard.  At the time Brassard said “Tim’s one of best refs in the league, he’s been around a long time,” Brassard said. “I have a lot of respect for every ref. I don’t want to be disrespectful. He took it the wrong way, I think. I was just kind of shocked.”

Earlier this season, Peel was the referee in the Rangers’ 6-2 win over the Bruins on February 26.  Some questioned the lack of a call against Brad Marchand on this play.

You could say that it was just a “play on” situation, but Marchand dropped his gloves and was looking for a fight which Fox avoided.

The only other memorable incident was in November 2019 when a Jacob Trouba shot hit Peel in the head during a game in Ottawa.

Peel had to be helped off the ice, but returned to the game.

Other issues for Peel

Tim Peel was suspended by the NHL after he gave a long interview to Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo Sports in 2015.  Peel spoke about some taboo subjects including how referees are directed to call games by the league.  The unofficial reason given for the one-game suspension at the time was that Wyshynski tweeted out a picture of the two doing tequila shots, but it’s clear the NHL was not happy with Peel’s frank comments.

Peel has been controversial and has made his share of iffy calls (or non-calls).  In The Athletic’s (subscription required) 2020 players poll Peel was ranked the second worst referee in the NHL.

There’s no doubt that hockey fans can find something wrong with every NHL official.  The good news for Ranger fans is that Tim Peel hasn’t made a call that was so egregious against the Blueshirts that it springs to mind immediately.

What it means

For some, Peel’s comments are confirmation that referees are biased or have ulterior motives when calling games.  How many times have we said, “the Rangers have had four power plays, they are due to get called for a penalty to even it out.”   We rail against he inconsistency game-to-game or we talk about how the referees have it out for certain players (we’re talking about you Brendan Lemieux), or how the superstars get away with murder (we’re talking about you Sidney Crosby).

What it does prove is that referees are human beings and can make mistakes and say stupid things.  There will continue to be missed calls and make-up calls and inexplicable rulings, but until the NHL goes to an “eye in the sky” third referee, it won’t end.

We wrote about the need for reforming the officiating here at Blue Line Station after an awful call cost the Boston Bruins a game in the Stanley Cup Finals against the Blues.

Ranger fans remember the calls that cost the Blueshirts in the 2014 Stanley Cup Finals.   Whether it was Dwight King interfering with Henrik Lundqvist in Game Two or the puck the Kings shot into the stands that was uncalled in Game Five, Ranger fans will never forget.

Tim Peel was not involved in those games and  has refereed 1,334 NHL games, fourth most among active refs.  He has officiated in 90 playoff games. Ironically, he was going to retire after this season with his last game scheduled for April 24.  It looks like retirement has come a few weeks early.