Former NHL Referee Opens Up On Incident That Got Him Fired

But back in 2021, he was the center of the hockey world when he was caught on the hot mic when giving a penalty to the Nashville Predators.

After the hot mic went viral he ended up being let go by the NHL and mostly faded into the background. Recently Peel opened up about the incident and the days after. He first said that the words that came out of his mouth and what he meant were vastly different. He also says that he wrote a letter to Gary Bettman and Bill Daly to clarify but was told to fly home the morning after the game. He knew his career was coming to an end at this point. He was supposed to retire at the end of that season.

While the intent may have not been malicious the sound bite was terrible and the whole hockey world heard it. Peel was always going to lose his job for what he said even even if it was just because of how optically bad it seemed.