However, other than the obvious tragic incidents that happen in hockey, diving is one of the worst things a player can do on the ice.
It is disrespectful to the game, the players, and the fans when a person fakes an injury or lays on the ice longer than necessary. No one is more of a threat to the game than those who dive for any reason. Whether it’s to draw a penalty or stop the play, it ruins the integrity of the game like nothing else.
Referees in the past have always been very selective when making a diving call. It has had a lot to do with the fact that calling someone a diver has more of an impact than the two minute penalty that follows. It can damage a player’s reputation. Because of the extra ramifications a diving penalty carries, referees sometimes don’t want to put themselves in a situation that could label a player as a cheater.
Over the years this problem has often been brushed aside as being part of the game. The argument suggests that anything that gives your team an edge without getting caught is just fine. If a player can fool the referees to give his team an advantage, it's considered gamesmanship. A skill even.
But where did it all begin? Of course it hasn't always been this way. Falling to the ice in order to draw a penalty while your team is heading up the ice was very uncommon in other eras of the game.
So what happened? Well, two major changes have happened since that time. The first was the drastic increase in European content over the past couple decades, and the second was the rule changes after the lockout.
Firstly, with so many new international players joining the league, a new obstacle was added to the mix in the diving department; the European influence. To say that Europeans dive more than those of North American birth has nothing to do with discrimination. It’s just not considered such a sin in Europe as it is in North America.
The attitude toward flopping is much more relaxed all the way through, from the referees to the players to the fans.
In soccer, it’s a joke. It’s disgusting to the world of competitive sports to see such obvious fakers get away with this nonsense that can leave a huge scar on the entire game from top to bottom. Is it only coincidence that the biggest game on the planet has failed to penetrate the North American market as it has throughout the rest of the world?
Or can it be directly linked to the intolerance of diving North Americans clearly feel?
Next, the crackdown on obstruction in the post-lockout NHL has fueled the problem further. Players knowing that the slightest infraction by the opposition can end up in a power play situation has players looking for every opportunity to get the ref's attention.
Diving cannot be an acceptable practice in the NHL, especially in a league that needs all the support it can get and continues to search for a larger fan base.
Although the penalty for diving is used on a semi-occasional basis in today’s NHL, it needs to be one of the more significant changes made. Ever since the lockout and the new standard of officiating, it has been hard to understand how the referee was able to spot the small one handed tap on the hip (or hooking as they liked to call it) but failed to acknowledge the 215 pound athlete that plummeted to the ice shortly thereafter.
It happens all the time. For every five hooks there are one or two dives. For every five hooks there are five hooking penalties, and almost zero diving calls. The ones that are called simply negate the power play the diving team would have benefited from, even though diving is a much worse crime to commit since it has an impact on the honesty of the game.
For this reason, diving should be a five minute major penalty every time no matter what the circumstance.
With two referees on the ice, a player usually does not need to help them make the penalty call by falling to the ice, which is yet another reason why there is simply no place for it in the game. Calling both penalties is fine as long as two infractions are clearly identified.
There is no harm in calling the dive alone either, when a player simply embellishes a fall or an injury when no foul was committed on them. In any case a dive is a dive and warrants five minutes in the box.
To put further emphasis on the issue, those who are caught must go through a separate process. A process that begins with the penalty but could lead to suspensions.
The offender’s name goes on a list and future dives by the same player will go to the league to discuss. Each additional dive a player takes after the first should come with a fine to both the player and coach, somewhere in the range of $15,000 to $30,000 for the second offense, increasing from there.
For example, a third offence should include the five minute major, a $50,000 fine and a one game suspension. I cannot imagine any player would go further than that but if so, more money and games must be sacrificed. Not to mention the label of cheater that goes along with it.
Players in today’s NHL rarely accumulate multiple diving penalties in their careers so to assume that it would happen on a regular basis is a stretch, but with the new standard anything is possible. A strong point needs to be heard.
The fear alone will have a great affect on the mentality of players. If they get checked, they will pop right back up. If they are tripped they will jump to their feet and begin to skate. They will fight through the hooks and the holds, rather than put their hands in the air and look at the referee to make a call.
Even the goaltenders who get nudged may think twice before doing a back flip in the crease. The product will improve and the players will appear tougher and not like cry-babies, pleading for a penalty when they should be continuing on with the play.
It would be wrong to suggest that the league is full of cry-babies since just about every player asks the referees to call a penalty now and then. But the new standard would eliminate this tactic somewhat for the better, as players would understand that there is no benefit to hitting the ice and they should instead make the extra attempt to stay on their skates to help their team.
The overall impact these changes would have on the NHL during its crackdown on dives would be to firstly remove most diving from the game, but more importantly, it would send the message that this kind of behavior is forbidden and that no one in any league (or any sport for that matter) at any level, is allowed to flop.
It is wrong. It is faking. It is cheating. It is dishonest. It is simply unacceptable. It is about respect, and for a professional sports league to take such a stand would bring immediate credibility to itself in this area.
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5 months ago
Sadly, diving has become part of the game. Problem is it shouldn't be. It's worse than being a goon. Great Article and great idea. Very well written.
4 months ago
Interesting. It's the first time I'd heard it suggested soccer isn't popular in the States because of diving. Intriguing proposition, but I personally feel it's just American egocentrism.
4 months ago
Your proposed solution to the so-called "diving problem" is a loaded one. There are undoubtedly players on every team who have no qualms about faking an injury just to get the penalty called. But there are also innumerable players who would take advantage of a strict no diving policy in the NHL, using it as an excuse to make bigger hits, take cheaper shots, and play a dirtier brand of hockey, knowing that if the opposing player goes down, they'll get a diving call.
As a long time Pittsburgh Penguins fan, this strikes a particular chord with me during this post-season. Sidney Crosby has gotten a lot of guff (both from the media and from opposing teams) for being a "diver." But the reality is, he takes more hits because he has possession of the puck for a good portion of the time he's on the ice, and sometimes, because of those hits, he goes down. Does he sometimes embellish the play? Probably. There isn't a hockey player alive who has never taken a dive to get a call on a dirty play that might have otherwise gone unnoticed by the referees. How many bad diving calls do you think would get made during the regular season just because the ref wasn't paying close enough attention to whether a player's legs kept moving after taking a hit? Knowing when and how to embellish a hit is part of what makes a good hockey player. In my experience, refs call the diving penalties when it's necessary, and let them slide when it's not. Sometimes taking a dive (particularly behind the play) is the only way the refs are aware that a penalty has just occurred.
4 months ago
As far as soccer goes, this diving problem has already been solved there. Players still do it to get a foul but if its obvious you get at least a yellow card for it.
(I think it isnt popular in the US because its both slow and doesnt encourage body contact. With all sports that are popular in the US u have at least one of those qualities. Lots of body contact or a much faster game. Hockey having both of those qualities. American football not being much of a faster game but including lots of potential injury situations. And so forth, Basketball, Baseball, you name it.)
Now with hockey this is of course a problem. The sport is so fast you sometimes cant tell right from wrong. And it would be a fault to lay this on the referees because even if there are a total of 3 referees on the ice watching that doesnt mean at least one of them should be able to tell diving from an obstruction at any time. You dont look for players trying to get the penalty although they couldve played on.
The next problem is that in soccer when someone trips you, you can see this from a mile away. You can see if the way he fell was due to a foul or just to get a free kick. Because the feet of the players are always on the ground unless they keep moving which makes a foul pretty much impossible and also the players themselves dont move as fast so you dont have to watch every slightest body contact from every possible angle in order to get a good point of view on what happened.
In Hockey its a problem and i think it will remain because not even remotely as many diving calls can possibly be made out. I wouldnt consider it part of the game but not cheating either. You dont dive for nothing, that would be obvious. And whether u wudve been able to go on or wudve been tripped a split second after your dive is what ull never find out.
As long as i see players working hard and not whining about every false call thats being made im proud of being able to watch this sport.
4 months ago
I like the idea, but I have seen where some players were falsely accused of diving. In one circumstance I saw a player clearly tripped and they were called for diving. How does this play out in your suggested solution?
Now in the case of Sidney "The Diver" Crosby, I think that this rule would actually make him an honest player & a better player. But I for one would not want a diver on my home team.
from 4 months ago
I see your point but, if it is 50/50 on whether the player was tripped or took a dive, I say penalize the diver. If it's 50/50 on whether or not a man is a serial killer, do you want him in jail or on the streets?
Those people are guilty until proven innocent. I don't care if you have to put innocent people away for the greater good of everyone else.
Obviously that's an extreme comparisson but you get my point. I just want the game to be played as straight up as possible.
As for the soccer comments, I know diving isn't the main reason people don't watch, but it does have an effect. Martin is right that the North American culture loves the high paced, action packed, tough guy sports over the other ones, but the wimps who have scarred soccer by faking a knee injury when they get tapped in the arm are also to blame.
And as for Crosby and Brodeur, superstars by anyone's standards, the only flaw they have is a reputation for diving, so you can see how it can have a major negative affect on players; even if they put up great numbers. Guys like OV and Phaneuf don't have that problem to deal with. Many times Crosby will clearly get obstructed but not get the call; it has an affect on the team! I agree I wouldn't have one on my team.
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