Even NHL coach’s challenge can’t save us from Tim Peel

The primary problem with Tim Peel, NHL referee and our old drinkin’ buddy, was his complete inconsistency and frequent misinterpretation of the League’s rules on goalie interference.

This season, the NHL appeared to have provided the antidote to that poison: The NHL coach’s challenge, which provided teams with the chance to appeal calls like goalie interference when goals are scored.

What many of us didn’t anticipate, however, was that referees like Tim Peel would find a way to still blow the call despite having the cockadoodie replay right in front of their faces.

In the Washington Capitals’ game against the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night, defenseman Dmitry Orlov managed to sneak a puck past goalie Martin Jones with Jay Beagle of the Capitals providing a screen.

Pete DeBoer, the Sharks coach, decided to challenge the goal, as Beagle skated through Jones’s crease and came close to the goalie.

Here’s the overhead view of the goal:

Here, it appears that Beagle might have made contact with Jones’s glove, which could have been enough to overturn the goal.

But here’s another view of the play in which you can see Beagle didn’t make contact with Jones, and in no way impeded him from making the save.

The NHL offered an explanation for this nonsense:

After reviewing all available replays and consulting with NHL Hockey Operations staff, the Referee determined that Washington's Jay Beagle interfered with Jones before the puck crossed the goal line. According to Rule 78.7, "The standard for overturning the call in the event of a ‘GOAL' call on the ice is that the Referee, after reviewing any and all available replays and consulting with the Toronto Video Room, determines that the goal should have been disallowed due to ‘Interference on the Goalkeeper,' as described in Rules 69.1, 69.3 and 69.4."

So, in summary, Tim Peel found a way to blow a call by using a mechanism that was designed to prevent guys like Tim Peel from blowing calls.

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