Tim Peel, who had worked in the N.H.L. since 1999, was caught on a microphone during a game saying he had wanted to make a call against a team.
The N.H.L. fired Tim Peel, a longtime referee, after a live rinkside microphone caught him saying he had been seeking an opportunity to call a penalty against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night. The comment came minutes after Nashville’s Viktor Arvidsson had been called for tripping Detroit’s Jon Merrill with 15 minutes 4 seconds left in the second period of the Predators’ win. “It wasn’t much, but I wanted to get a penalty against Nashville early,” Peel said, with an expletive, with 12:42 left in the period. The league acted hours later in a statement issued Wednesday by Colin Campbell, a senior executive vice president of hockey operations.
