Firing Tim Peel does nothing to address NHL officiating

After being caught admitting to making a makeup call thanks to a hot mic, the NHL has fired referee Tim Peel.

Hating referees is a time honored tradition in sports fandom. Why blame your favorite team’s players for a loss when it’s way more fun to blame the folks who make the calls? But sometimes, NHL referees can put games into their own hands by making bad calls. What’s worse is when they try to make up for those bad calls by making another bad call.

Makeup calls are a part of sports. They suck, but all referees and umpires use them, whether they’ll admit it or not. On March 23, during a game between the Nashville Predators and Detroit Red Wings, veteran referee Tim Peel made one of his trademark questionable penalty calls. This is nothing new for Peel.

However, Peel broke an unwritten rule by admitting the call was a makeup call. And he did so while wearing a hot mic. To complete the trifecta, Peel said a four letter word that starts with “f” and is very NSFW.

Not surprisingly, this got immediate attention all over the hockey universe and social media. In an equally unsurprising move, the NHL announced this morning Tim Peel is done as an NHL referee.

The NHL is making Tim Peel a scapegoat

Tim Peel probably deserved to be fired for what he did. Not only did he commit a horrible sin by admitting he probably shouldn’t have called a penalty, he did so in NSFW fashion while wearing a mic. Peel has long been the face for referee incompetence in the NHL.

However, Peel was planning on retiring after the season anyway. So firing him doesn’t really change anything. There are still going to be makeup calls. Trust me. You’ll see at least one in the next hockey game you watch. Probably more than one!

Tim Peel wasn’t the only referee who makes makeup calls. But he was the only one dumb enough to openly admit it. As long as referees don’t admit they’re using makeup calls to “even the score”, they’re still going to do it. And the NHL won’t do anything about it.

Until the NHL is prepared to start holding their referees accountable, a cloud of controversy will continue to follow. Referees aren’t available to the media after games. What if they were? What if there were people who could hold them accountable for questionable calls? Being a referee is a hard job, but if the NHL wants to be taken seriously, they have to hold their officials accountable, just like they hold their own players accountable.