The Daily Faceoff Show: Tim Peel discusses delay of game call of Thatcher Demko

Tim Peel
Tim Peel
The Daily Faceoff Show: Tim Peel discusses delay of game call of Thatcher Demko

In Tuesday’s edition of The Daily Faceoff Show, former NHL goaltender Mike McKenna and former NHL referee Tim Peel discussed a controversial delay of game call that was made on Thatcher Demko of the Vancouver Canucks from over the weekend.

Here’s the call in question…

McKenna: “This situation with Demko the other evening against Vegas, I watched it happen and I thought, man there’s no way he knocked this net off on purpose. I’ve been in his shoes, I don’t think it happened that way.

I want to know from your standpoint, Peelsy, what you would see on the ice in the moment and what would an official be thinking? What was Chris Schlenker thinking when he went and made this call for delay of game against Thatcher Demko?

Peel: “There isn’t really a short answer to this and I want to give a little insight to if I was officiating this game and the mindset of an official on the ice.

From what I understand, the net came off earlier in the game by Robin Lehner. Earlier in this period, Keegan Kolesar knocked the net off in Vancouver’s end and the on-ice officials put the net back on.

As a referee in a 4-4 hockey game, if Demko had knocked this net off once or twice before and Chris Schlenker came over and warned Demko, and said ‘hey, if this net comes off again, I’m calling a delay of game penalty.’ But, from what I understand, Demko hadn’t knocked the net off at all prior to this incident. This was the first time it had happened.

To me, this is not an egregious knocking the net off because he’s feeling pressure. This is a goalie that’s hugging the post, he doesn’t extend his arm. I think as an official on the ice, you need to read that. You need to have a feel for the game and you need to understand the situation that it’s a 4-4 game with 13 minutes to go.

And, from looking at the replay, it doesn’t look like Demko did it intentionally.

You can watch the full episode here…

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