Make-up calls refer to situations where officials deem that it’s time to call a penalty to “make up” for a prior officiating mistake or general lopsided penalization of one team over another. Managing the game has long been accepted, and make-up calls continue to exist. Obviously, I and most NHL fans realized the farce of his statement immediately. There is no justification for his comments, no matter the context or his intention, and the National Hockey League will take any and all steps necessary to protect the integrity of our game.” Colin Campbell “Tim Peel’s conduct is in direct contradiction to the adherence to that cornerstone principle that we demand of our officials and that our fans, players, coaches and all those associated with our game expect and deserve. To prove their surprise, Colin Campbell, the NHL’s senior vice-president of hockey operations, stated (from NHL dumps referee Tim Peel after ‘f–king penalty’ hot-mic debacle, New York Post, March 24, 2021): Afterwards, he was quickly fired, with NHL brass seemingly surprised that officials manage games in this way.

The purest example of this is the Tim Peel hot-mic incident, in which Peel stated that he, “wanted to get a f**king penalty,” against the Nashville Predators. This is due to the fact that NHL referees “manage” games, rather than make every call they see. Managing the GameĮven if the NHL completely revamps the rule book, it’s debatable whether fans would see any change in on-ice officiating. This, with other adjustments, would make officiating much easier, and could allow referees to follow the letter of the law. No hockey fans actually want officials to make game-changing calls based on swearing, so there’s no reason to keep that rule in circulation. But if you’ve watched a game in the past five years, you’ve probably heard an uncalled “f**k” on a hot mic. For example, rule 75.2(i) forbids swearing. While the league has recently taken a respectable stance on headshots, they’ve left archaic rules in their bible.Ī couple years ago, Sean McIndoe of The Athletic touched on some of the sillier rules in the book (from Down Goes Brown: Want the NHL to just call the rulebook exactly as written? Be careful what you wish for, The Athletic, June 4, 2019). Let’s start with the law they are asked to uphold: the NHL rule book, which is outdated at best. But what is causing their missed calls? The NHL Rule Book Surely there’s something wrong with this precedent, and there should be options for the league to hold their officials accountable. Referee Gord Dwyer goes to the ice after being caught between Montreal Canadiens defenseman Jeff Petry and Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov (AP Photo/Joe Skipper)īut when they get calls blatantly wrong - and get called out by coaches or players - the teams, rather than the referees, are slapped with fines.

They deserve much more credit than they get. They have to be in the heat of the action, but they have to be out of the way at the same time. Officials have to jump into brawls to break up fights. Sticks and pucks flick and fly all over the ice. NHL officials have arguably the toughest job in all of sports.

But what should they do? Officiating is Hard This is not the first time fans have been outraged by NHL referees, and it’s about time the NHL did something about this, as there’s an argument that their lack of transparent action is starting to diminish league accountability. But all of this could have been avoided with some sharper officiating. This led to a two-game suspension for Pionk, and a six-game suspension ( to be appealed) for Spezza. Auston Matthews and Pierre-Luc Dubois got into a relatively one-sided scuffle, Rasmus Sandin was kneed by Neal Pionk, and due to the non-call, Jason Spezza kneed Neal Pionk in the head. The recent Toronto Maple Leafs versus Winnipeg Jets game got slightly out of hand.

Tim peel comments nhl