NHL referee caught declaring make-up call

Mofo · Mar 24, 2021

Kinda stupid, though we all knew this has gone on behind the scenes for decades and in favor of certain teams.

Was either Tim Peel or Kelly Sutherland.

NHL probing ref's hot-mic call on Preds penalty

With 12:42 remaining in the second period, the Nashville broadcast captured audio from an on-ice official saying, "It wasn't much, but I wanted to get" a penalty against Nashville early. The NHL is investigating.

www.espn.com

RP-29 · Mar 24, 2021

Kinda surprising. I watched the game. None of the penalties called seemed out of place from either side. There was an obvious cross-check/boarding hit by Nashville that wasn't called while the Wings were on a powerplay for the same infraction. I guess maybe that was a make-up no-call for the make-up tripping call?...

...Even if the Wings did have a 5-on-3 PP for that no-call, it wouldn't have mattered on the scoreboard. Wings PP was embarrassing last night.

Mofo · Mar 24, 2021

RP-29 said:
Kinda surprising. I watched the game. None of the penalties called seemed out of place from either side. There was an obvious cross-check/boarding hit by Nashville that wasn't called while the Wings were on a powerplay for the same infraction. I guess maybe that was a make-up no-call for the make-up tripping call?...

Dunno. Embellishment rarely, if ever, gets called. As a seasoned hockey watcher, I’d love to think that I can always tell if a call is mostly fair too. Then I remember that I don’t always see what I think I’m seeing, and that’s just from the camera angles I have access to.

I thought the Nashville coach took it in stride. He’ll probably use it as a means to rally his team; “Boys, we won even when the refs were conspiring against us!”

RP-29 said:
...Even if the Wings did have a 5-on-3 PP for that no-call, it wouldn't have mattered on the scoreboard. Wings PP was embarrassing last night.

I’m sure apologists for Toronto receiving favorable calls throughout the years have made the same defenses. Perennially sucky teams are still sucky teams, after all.

RP-29 · Mar 24, 2021

Mofo said:
I thought the Nashville coach took it in stride. He’ll probably use it as a means to rally his team; “Boys, we won even when the refs were conspiring against us!”

I’m sure apologists for Toronto receiving favorable calls throughout the years have made the same defenses. Perennially sucky teams are still sucky teams, after all.

I thought Hynes handled it well, too. "Let the league handle it."

I don't subscribe to conspiracy theories that certain teams consistently get favorable calls, but I do subscribe to the theory that certain players get favorable calls from refs and treatment from the league.

CaptainStubing · Mar 24, 2021

Make up calls happen in every sport. I would think this guy will face some discipline though because it's a bad look

Mofo · Mar 24, 2021

RP-29 said:
I thought Hynes handled it well, too. "Let the league handle it."

I don't subscribe to conspiracy theories that certain teams consistently get favorable calls, but I do subscribe to the theory that certain players get favorable calls from refs and treatment from the league.

Interesting idea. Is it players who are “untouchable” and will always draw penalty calls if they take even the slightest shoulder, cross or hip check? Or players who are viewed as dirty / goonish who more readily take penalties if they are merely on the ice when someone loses an edge and falls?

CaptainStubing said:
Make up calls happen in every sport. I would think this guy will face some discipline though because it's a bad look

Can’t get caught actually saying you planned to call a penalty on one team.

RP-29 · Mar 24, 2021

Mofo said:
Interesting idea. Is it players who are “untouchable” and will always draw penalty calls if they take even the slightest shoulder, cross or hip check? Or players who are viewed as dirty / goonish who more readily take penalties if they are merely on the ice when someone loses an edge and falls?

Both.

Given your team affiliation, here's a great example of the former: Crosby's slash on Methot. Even Stevie Wonder would've seen that slash by Crosby while Methot was carrying the puck into the zone. No call on the play. Methot takes his glove off and exposes his severed finger while still on the ice. NHL Player Safety dispenses absolutely no punishment to Crosby. Methot missed a lot of time from that slash. And if my memory serves me correctly, several other players had done much less and gotten much more punishment earlier that year.

Mofo · Mar 24, 2021

Aaaaannnnndddd, he’s fired.

NHL reacts swiftly to hot-mic embarrassment, drops veteran referee Tim Peel

Most fans believe make-up calls are intentional, but there's no tolerance for admitting this as truth.

sports.yahoo.com

The NHL will now presumably pretend the problem is fixed.

RP-29 said:
Both.

Given your team affiliation, here's a great example of the former: Crosby's slash on Methot. Even Stevie Wonder would've seen that slash by Crosby while Methot was carrying the puck into the zone. No call on the play. Methot takes his glove off and exposes his severed finger while still on the ice. NHL Player Safety dispenses absolutely no punishment to Crosby. Methot missed a lot of time from that slash. And if my memory serves me correctly, several other players had done much less and gotten much more punishment earlier that year.

Oh him. Yeah, probably. He gets Gretzky-like protection from the league, despite being a huge crybaby.

Peter Gozintite · Mar 24, 2021

Just glad it wasnt a Knights game.

RP-29 · Mar 24, 2021

Peter Gozintite said:
Just glad it wasnt a Knights game.

I'm glad the call made little difference to the outcome of the game for two teams that probably aren't going to be in the playoffs. If it was a call in a Knights-Avs game that swung the game in one team's favor that ended up being the difference in playoff seeding, that's a much bigger deal IMO.

Hank Kingsley · Mar 24, 2021

This is funny..

Blackshirts BLVD · Mar 24, 2021

So what is the context here? To my knowledge he just said it, he didn't actually give them a penalty.

Was it from some frustration or frustrating players and he just said it out of spite or anger like... 'I wanted to give em a penalty' - but he kept his integrity in the game?

steelerssb · Mar 24, 2021

Fire the guy for the optics (wasn't he retiring soon anyway) but it's not gonna change anything.

There's a lot more the NHL needs to do with refs and transparency, but really all I get from this is he was just dumb enough to say something on a hot mic that we all kinda new was a thing.

Blackshirts BLVD · Mar 24, 2021

steelerssb said:
Fire the guy for the optics (wasn't he retiring soon anyway) but it's not gonna change anything.

Yeah, but I am sure he will probably lose some benefits or pension or something.

steelerssb said:
There's a lot more the NHL needs to do with refs and transparency, but really all I get from this is he was just dumb enough to say something on a hot mic that we all kinda new was a thing.

But he didn't give them a penalty right? He only said he wanted to. If that much is true, I don't really see a problem, refs are human, they will get annoyed, frustrated, or just say something stupid sometimes, but just so long as they are calling the game the best they can. If this guy kept his integrity and didn't call something that wasn't there (which the camera should show) then I think he should be allowed to keep his job. Suspension for a few games for saying something stupid, fine whatever.

Like @Hank Kingsley showed, the NHL needs to show some respect. How many refs have scored on the Panthers before?

steelerssb · Mar 24, 2021

Blackshirts BLVD said:
Yeah, but I am sure he will probably lose some benefits or pension or something.

They said on the intermission break during Pens/Sabres he's keeping all that and his pay through the season. That was the first I had heard that.

Blackshirts BLVD said:
But he didn't give them a penalty right? He only said he wanted to. If that much is true, I don't really see a problem, refs are human, they will get annoyed, frustrated, or just say something stupid sometimes, but just so long as they are calling the game the best they can. If this guy kept his integrity and didn't call something that wasn't there (which the camera should show) then I think he should be allowed to keep his job. Suspension for a few games for saying something stupid, fine whatever.

Like @Hank Kingsley showed, the NHL needs to show some respect. How many refs have scored on the Panthers before?

I'm not really sure, to be honest, but I think you're right. I think the "wanted to" thing was probably he knew a ticky-tac call was made earlier and he wanted to make up for it. Which if it was him wanting to make a make-up call that would be within reason his only real mistake is getting it caught on a hot mic because we all know that's just part of the game and will continue to be part of the game, but obviously it's not a good look when we KNOW a makeup is coming. Or maybe something got him frustrated and he was just letting it out and it got picked up.

But at the end of the day, while I get the NHL needing to penalize him, he's certainly not Tim Donaghy. He just does what the rest do, but happened to get caught.

Hank Kingsley · Mar 24, 2021

It's called game management. Calling penalties to set tone, not necessarily enforcing the rules. And could indicate bias.

NHL refs are like traffic cops. Love penalizing. Occasionally have to deal with blood.

Blackshirts BLVD · Mar 24, 2021

steelerssb said:
They said on the intermission break during Pens/Sabres he's keeping all that and his pay through the season. That was the first I had heard that.

Oh, if that is the case then that is better at least. I was afraid that one stupid comment that didn't impact the game nor did it appear he followed through just ruined this guys career/retirement.

steelerssb said:
I'm not really sure, to be honest, but I think you're right. I think the "wanted to" thing was probably he knew a ticky-tac call was made earlier and he wanted to make up for it. Which if it was him wanting to make a make-up call that would be within reason his only real mistake is getting it caught on a hot mic because we all know that's just part of the game and will continue to be part of the game, but obviously it's not a good look when we KNOW a makeup is coming. Or maybe something got him frustrated and he was just letting it out and it got picked up.

But at the end of the day, while I get the NHL needing to penalize him, he's certainly not Tim Donaghy. He just does what the rest do, but happened to get caught.

Personally, I never get the feeling in hockey that the refs are purposely screwing a team. I was pretty fucking annoyed that Eakin got a 5 minute major on bullshit because the San Jose player unfortunately fell awkwardly and got hurt. I didn't think the refs were looking for a reason to shaft Vegas, but that they thought they were erring on the side of caution due to how it looked. Even though the NHL released a statement citing that game for some rule changes following that post season.

Now college football... not gonna lie, there are quite a few times where I felt the refs were personally shafting my team. There are TONS of memes and tweets about how either... 1) B1G refs are screwing Nebraska or 2) Favoring the team Nebraska is playing.

Here is a comment from reddit