Sunday, March 22, 2009

NHL Needs to Ditch the Dive Penalty

I watched a game last night where a player was obviously tripped and a penalty was called on the player, but a penalty was also called on the player tripped for "diving". This penalty is one that I think that the NHL should consider getting rid of because it's too subjective of a call for the referee to make. To start off with, the majority of the time the call is against a player who trips another player, and the "dive" or "unsportsmenlike conduct" is assessed because the referee determines that the player tripped has tried to enhance the penalty by tripping a bit too much? Just what would be enough of a fall for it to be a penalty and what is too much? Is it that the player hits the ice too hard, or slides too much, or makes a funny face? The point is that the whole thing is too subjective and is not an obvious call like high sticking, boarding, elbowing, etc., and should be done away with, or maybe the referee's can use instant replay to see if the player actually did enhance the penalty or not.

Washington Capitals Hockey

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