Former National Hockey League (NHL) referee Tim Peel said star players are entitled to preferential treatment from officials.
That’s the revelation he made during his appearance on the “Snipes and Stripes” podcast, hosted by former NHL player Jeremy Roenick.
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“Did I give Sidney Crosby ‘break’? Did I do it with Alexander Ovechkin and the other superstars too? “Absolutely,” Peel said. Why not? There are 18,000 people there for them. They are there to see them, not the fourth row plumbers.
However, the one who has worked in the Bettman circuit for more than 13,000 games wanted to make it clear that certain penalties must be imposed, regardless of the perpetrator of the violation.
Peel was released by the NHL in 2021 following an internal investigation. At the moment he thought his microphone was closed, he had justified punishing a player on the ice by saying that he only had to impose a penalty on the team, even if the act committed did not require it.