The NHL is looking into comments from a referee during Tuesday’s Red Wings game against Nashville that he "wanted" to call a penalty on the Predators.
Referee Tim Peel called Predators forward Viktor Arvidsson for tripping at 4 minutes 56 seconds of the second period, a call questioned immediately by broadcasters and people on social media as quickly as it happened.
Caught on a microphone nearby, Peel or, possibly, referee Kelly Sutherland said, “it wasn’t much but I wanted to get a (expletive) penalty against Nashville early in the…” as the audio goes out.
Arvidsson was mystified as he was called – and the Nashville broadcasting team went as far as speculating Wings’ defenseman Jon Merrill was being called for embellishment.