“So I hear my phone vibrating on the corner and I go pick it up and it’s my boss, Steven… the first thing I thought was ‘did we miss a goal?’ And he said ‘we’ve got a big problem’ and he tells me. I didn’t even remember it until I watched it. I turned to the (other refs) in the dressing room and I went ‘I may get fired tonight.”

And later, Peel had to confront the Predators franchise about what had happened.

“[Predators GM] Mr. [David} Poile had already left the building, so (I was on phone) with him and I explained to him that was not my intent. My intent was not to get Nashville. I said to him ‘I made a terrible mistake, my words came out wrong’,” Peel told Poile. “And John Hynes, who is a tremendous human being and a coach, he came out and he goes ‘Timmy I know you didn’t mean that,’ and I go ‘John I didn’t… you know I was always fair and tried to make it a fair and safe environment for hte players, and a fair game for the players’ and I go ‘I’m so sorry’ and I could tell he felt bad because he could see how upset I was and how terrible I felt.”

-Tim Peel, former NHL ref. Zach Laing of Daly Faceoff has more.