![]() Louis in what was slated to be his retirement game. The 53-year-old veteran of 1,361 regular-season games won’t get to work a 1,362nd, nor will he get his swan song next month in his hometown of St. It’s a tale as old as time - and one the NHL has still failed to address despite handing Peel his walking papers on Wednesday. In Peel’s mind, he clearly felt he had to give the Red Wings a chance to “make good,” and so he went looking for even the most ticky-tack thing he could spot, while no doubt turning a blind eye, at least for the time being, to any laws of the land Detroit might wish to violate. Referee Tim Peel, upper right, officiates a game between the Nashville Predators and the Detroit Red Wings in Nashville, Tenn. And the call on Arvidsson at 4:56 of the middle frame was as predictable as the sun rising tomorrow. At the time, the Predators were leading Detroit 1-0, courtesy of a first-period power play goal. “It wasn’t much, but I wanted to get a f-–g penalty against Nashville early in the…,” Peel could be heard saying on the TV broadcast before the audio abruptly cut out. ![]() In this case, the long-held and not-very-pretty practice of game management, a major systemic flaw in which officials repeatedly change the standard of what is and isn’t a foul and take a selective stance based entirely on the situation, the scoreboard and the stakes. No, the veteran referee’s real sin - at least in the eyes of his employer - was getting caught on a live microphone revealing to a worldwide audience how the sausage was made. Tim Peel wasn’t sent packing by the NHL for calling a dubious tripping penalty on Nashville’s Viktor Arvidsson on Tuesday night. This article was published (826 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current. ![]() Free Press 101: How we practise journalism.
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