This is something you don’t want picked up by a microphone if you’re an NHL official.
A referee in the game between the Nashville Predators and Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday evening was picked up on a hot mic admitting one of his penalty calls was basically a make-up call for a previous penalty.
“It wasn’t much, but I wanted to give a f*cking penalty against Nashville early in the…”, the official can be heard saying as the broadcast was cutting to commercial break.
The two refs in the game were Tim Peel and Kelly Sutherland, but it’s unclear which one of them was on the mic here.
Lol the ref in Nash/Detroit just got caught on a hot mic admitting a penalty was a make-up call. “there wasn’t much but I wanted to get a f*cking penalty against Nashville.” what a league @nhl
— J.R. Lind (@jrlind) March 24, 2021
Video:
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, 2021
The Hockey News’ Ken Campbell reported after the game that Colin Campbell, NHL director of hockey operations, would not comment on the situation, but did acknowledge that the NHL is investigating the incident.
NHL director of hockey operations Colin Campbell would not comment on one of the referees appearing to admit to an even-up call in the Nashville-Detroit game tonight, but did acknowledge, "Investigating this incident."
— Ken Campbell (@THNKenCampbell) March 24, 2021
We’ve always known that make-up calls are part of sports, but to hear it live in an actual NHL game is quite something.
