The National Hockey League is facing a major crisis regarding the integrity of its in-game officiating, following a hot mic incident involving referee Tim Peel (apologies for language):
Maybe if you're a mic'd up ref, you shouldn't express how you wanted to call a penalty against a team earlier in the game, changing how you ref the rest of the game.
"It wasn't much but I wanted to get a fuckin' penalty against Nashville early in the..."#Preds #LGRW pic.twitter.com/6fZImkdqLr— Matt Best (@bestofmatt) March 24, 2021Peel’s remark confirms what fans and observers of the league have long known: officials try to avoid a lopsided assignment of penalties within a game, meaning that some late-game infractions go uncalled or instead they call some ticky-tack stuff to “even things out.