Last Thursday, I met referee Tim Peel at a pub in New York City. On one stool was a referee that many cite as one of the worst in the business, and on the other was a writer that maligned him quite often, to the point where we rated his blown calls with Mario Kart banana peels.

Many of you read about that meeting in this Puck Daddy story, and for that I thank you. It was a meeting that could have gone a dozen different, more contentious ways, but Peel’s a good guy who genuinely wanted for me to learn more about where he’s coming from and vice versa; and in turn, to enlighten critics of NHL referees about why they do what they do.

Yes, we drank. It was an off-night for both of us. The tequila shot image seen here was something Peel encouraged me to post online after I asked him, and he did the same when it came to a story about our meeting the following day. He wanted this all out there. It was an informal, on the record chat; we went off the record when discussing more sensitive topics.

To call it one of the more well-received stories we’ve done here would be an understatement, and again I thank you for that. But I knew Peel putting himself out there could have some repercussions with the NHL. I hoped they wouldn’t, but I figured they could. Like I said to him at our meeting: If the NHL took any action on this, it goes from being a quirky human interest story to Big Hockey News. It would blow up in their faces.

As far as I can gather: They were steamed about the drinking photo moreso than anything in the story.

(Because, you know, Peel is the only on-ice official to have road beverages on an off-night.)

So the photo hit Twitter, and the story hit the blog, and the NHL pulled Peel from a scheduled gig refereeing the New Jersey Devils’ game against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night. He was, however, back on the ice on Saturday for the New York Rangers’ game at MSG.

Once more, with feeling: He missed one game as a slap on the wrist but was working again 24 hours later.

A few people took notice. I didn’t see it necessary to poke the bear on this, out of respect to Peel and because being the center of the story you cover is never exactly high on a journalist's to-do list; besides, he was working the following day.

Then on Monday, 98.5 Sports in Montreal, a French-language sports radio station, reported that Peel had been “suspended indefinitely” due to our meeting. (Well, they reported a meeting with a “fan” but that’s the least of our factual concerns.) They referenced his getting pulled from the Devils game, but not that he worked the following night.

Which is, you know, a fairly salient fact when you’re reporting someone was suspended “indefinitely.” In the sense that it could then be defined as “one game.”

Anyway, we figured we’d root out where the bad reporting originated, and it originated with Ron Fournier, a radio host who used to be a National Hockey League referee. Here’s reader Andre Trahan’s translation of their segment:

Host Mario Langlois : …news about referees, Tim Peel finds himself in a dicey situation following an article on a blog, Greg Wyshinski’s blog, not sure if I pronounce his name correctly [almost pronounced it correctly the “h” was barely there], tell us the story. He happened to have a drink with a blogger

Ron Fournier : Wyzinski, Wyzinski, he’s not a guy people know about. He writes a blog, it’s called Puck Daddy. And he, he trashed – he trashes everybody, he trashes everybody – and for a couple of years he has been trashing Tim Peel.

ML : He’s done it for a while, right?

RF : Tim Peel meets him in a bar. Fooly’s Pub in New York between two games. Wednesday, he’s in Washington, Friday he’s in New Jersey. He meets him, speaks to him, tells him a little how it works. They take a picture. Of course “chin-chin” (cheers! In French). A little shot. A little pic. Bang bang. The next day, Puck Daddy, the little baby, the smartass, writes an article. He explains who Tim Peel really is. And Peel says more than he should.

ML : But Peel knows the guy is not kind to him.

RF : He tries to become his friend.

ML : To get him on his side.

RF : So he has a game the next day. He receives a call : “You’re not working. You’re suspended. You’re not going to New Jersey. [Seems he is talking about the Friday night game between NJ and Pittsburgh?]

Story continues