How to stop embellishment

[Kosseca]

Players embellish because refs won’t call penalties unless they do. Need better refs.

They won’t see a high stick unless you fling your head back, they won’t call a hook if you stay on your feet.

I came here to say this. 20 yrs ago, holding and grabing was an issue, now it's obstruction.

 

[Rec T]

The easiest way is to only call the embellishment.
Right now, the worst thing that happens is 4on4.
If they called Embellishment without calling the other infraction, it would help stop it, because now instead of maybe drawing a PP or keeping things even, you could be putting yourself shorthanded.

The problem with that is that there is usually a legitimate penalty that the embellisher is trying to sell very hard. Embellishment should be a double minor. Embellishment & a 2 min Unsportsmanlike penalty.

With post game reviews mandated if a team requests it (maybe 20 requests per season or something that won't turn every game into a circus). Reviewed by the league & the embellishing player is fined the first 2-3 times & then suspended with the suspension doubling with each subsequent verification (if the idiot can't learn not to do that with a few mild warnings...then perhaps he 'should' sit for four or eight games).

Maybe something in there too about officials missing the call even though they were right there & watching (upon post game review) getting fined. If they know that they'll be losing money for ignoring the call, it'll actually be made rather than ignored. As like now, officials being punished won't be published, but they'll know that the eye is on them

 

[SenzZen]

Officiating is terrible. Players feel the need to embarrass refs in order to get a call.

The zebras are either inept or managing games. Or both, I suppose.

 

[CycloneSweep]

I remember earlier in McDavids career where he would literally just skate thru checks, have guys literally holding him or going water skiing off of him and the refs wouldn't call anything cause he could fight thru it. He has had to start with some embellishment and stuff or "crying" to the refs to eventually get calls.

Its become a form of gamemanship cause the refs don't call the penalties.

 

[Coach Parker]

Call the infraction and the diving. 4 on 4.
Then, the diver gets a 10 min misconduct. Team is short the diver for 10 minutes on the bench.
Elite players immediately stop.

 

[Strangle]

Players embellish because refs won’t call penalties unless they do. Need better refs.

They won’t see a high stick unless you fling your head back, they won’t call a hook if you stay on your feet.

Exactly, this is the fault of the league and the refs

I’m pretty sure the refs are just doing what they are told and the league itself is instructing them to call games the way they do

 

[NyQuil]

It's the kind of thing where they have to be more on top of it as far as post-game reviews are concerned.

I don't necessarily blame the officials for missing it in real-time, sometimes it's that much more glaring in the instant replay.

But with the benefit of hindsight, a more consistent and standardized system of strikes and suspensions would be better, along with video evidence of the offence as justification.

I find a lot of "embellishment" calls are more reputational, when it should be about the specific infractions themselves.

Part of the fault lies with not calling infractions as frequently where the player doesn't fall down or make a big obvious deal about it. It really incentivizes the player to hit the ice when they feel a stick or glove somewhere as opposed to trying to battle through.

I've seen guys shake their gloves and the stick never even touched their hand. That's a good candidate for post-game review and consequences.

 

[HanSolo]

I think the problem with remedies like substantial increases to fines or suspensions is it would invite a lot of disputes from the NHLPA and I'd imagine the NHL feels that's more of a headache than it's worth.

But there should be more of a deterrent somehow. Diving/embellishment is cheating plain and simple. It's embarrassing that professional leagues across multiple sports haven't done more to crack down on it. I think an automatic major for each egregious offense should cut it down dramatically. Keep a running list of offenders, post it right on the NHL.com website, do a press release every time a guy is caught stating publicly that a player embellished, and give ejections to repeat offenders. That shit will dry up real quick.

 

[Tobias Kahun]

Penalizing it more sounds good in theory but I want to ask everyone who's suggesting it one thing. Do you really trust NHL refs to be good enough at calling embellishment, or would it just make things worse?

I don’t even trust them to call black and white penalties properly

 

[NotCommitted]

I'm not saying getting rid of embellishment (and outright diving ofc!) is not a worthy goal, but if starting to do frame-by-frame dissections of potential embellishments after the fact, then maybe they need to start doing same for ALL missed calls. Most embellishment in the NHL really seems to fall under the gray area, where there's an infraction worthy of a penalty to begin with, and the embellishment is an effort to make sure the ref notices it.

 

[NotCommitted]

Another thing is the way NHL games are called, there's too much gray area to begin with, the "line" varies from game to game and something like cross-checks are allowed most of the time, as long as you don't cross-check "too hard".

 

[canadianmagpie]

This sounds like it's going to VAR which for a game like soccer, is horrible but I think it could be slightly better for hockey. There's usually about 45-60 seconds between the whistle for the penalty before the puck drops for the start of a powerplay, sometimes longer. Have another referee review the penalty, if they see that there was no contact for a high stick or the reaction did not fit the impact (e.g. exaggerating the contact), then the refs are called over to review and to see if an embellishment call is required.

 

[MadLuke]

What if an embellishment penalty could be assessed to an offending player after the game. It is too difficult to make the call on the ice.

I was certain they could and after 3 offense it was a one game suspensions. that it was just very rarely used.

NHL Diving/Embellishment List - 2015-16

The NHL’s list of publicly-fined divers as well as players called for embellishment during games of the 2015-16 NHL season.

scoutingtherefs.com

The league reviews all possible embellishment situations and may consider additional dives that were not penalized during the game. They may also rescind dives called in a game that were later reviewed and determined not to be embellishments.

The NHL’s Hockey Operations department tracks every diving or embellishment penalty called on the ice. They also review each game to identify possible dives that were missed by the on-ice officials. (In some cases, they even rescind those diving penalties that may have been called during a game. Boston’s Brad Marchand was the beneficiary of such a modification.)
Once the Hockey Ops team agrees that a dive has taken place, they issue a citation. Sportsnet’s Damien Cox reports that there are nine individuals who participate in the review of each incident. If six decide that a dive has taken place, the player is cited.



Or maybe it was just for that season ?

 

[MikeK]

I am in total favor of the NHL reviewing reported embellishment that have been missed during a game and suspending those players which are clearly guilty. I'm so sick of it and it's gotten way out of hand. I feel it should be reviewed on the ice and if a player is clearly embellishing it should be an automatic minor penalty and they should be the only ones penalized. No more of this offsetting minor penalty BS. Send the diver to the box. It shouldn't matter if it's regular season or playoffs. The only way to crack down on it is to single those punks out.

 

[Matty Sundin]

Make it a coaches challenge since that what they love doing but make the progress more entertaining . Coaches challenges a penalty as a dive. If found true, player thrown out of game and given 5 min major. If challenged is wrong then team gets a 5 min penalty is coach is thrown out the game and escort out the arena by police.

 

[Yepthatsme]

One person already nailed it on the head, call it more often, and completely stop calling both the penalty and the embellishment. If a player embellishes, the original penalty should be waived.

A rule that could work harmoniously with that is that if a ref suspects embellishment, they get a 30 second window to review that play only at real time speed. Let’s the ref be sure, and doesn’t let them get too nitpicky about the calls. In combination, embellishment will end extremely quickly with the threat of putting your team at a disadvantage doing it.

 

[BusQuets]

Players embellish because refs miss so many clear penalties. Nobody wants to take 10 cross-checks on the back and pretend like it's okay.

 

[GrumpyKoala]

Right to jail.

 

[KevinRedkey]

5-10min misconduct, which makes another player serve your penalty.
In the playoffs, the remaining misconduct time rolls over to the next game in the series.

 

[Freudian]

Perhaps a scarlet letter on their jerseys?

 

[Ducks DVM]

Have each team submit a video review of what they believe were dives/embellishment after each game. Have a review by a group of 9 league officials determine which were dives. Have a sliding scale of fines leading to suspensions, which are doubled with each incident. They actually have most of these rules and have simply ignored them.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

The problem with embellishment is that there is literally 0 downside. In the rare instance it gets called both players get called.

 

[Bcap88]

Call strictly embellishment and not the minor to the other player that accompanies it

Never understood one player getting 2 for embellishing and the other player getting 2 for an infraction as well

 

[JAK]

McDavid : It's not an issue in the league

 

[Brookbank]

I am not picking on Connor. Everyone is doing it. But look at this. It is mentally taxing on the guy who gets conned too. Joshua was just devastated