Divers Down https://t.co/bZy5qS8UP1 pic.twitter.com/c3QRoEjJad
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) April 1, 2016
Listen up, NHL players who wish to show up the on ice officials.
No. This is not an April Foo's Day gag.
It's real. Real embarrassing to the guys who have been caught in this latest flopping sting operation performed by the eyes in the skies.
The League and it's conduct police are watching you and apear to have had it up to here with your embellishments and aerial acrobatics. The incessant feigning of injuries and selling for penalty calls has become a wretched part of the NHL. On a nightly basis, we are being subjected to watching grown men who have skated at world class levels for 2/3 of their lives suddenly forget how to skate and face plant on the ice for the world to see.
The NHL is becoming soccer. I despise soccer. It's just not my deal.
Hockey players block shots with their faces, lose teeth and not miss shifts. They are tougher as nails and stronger than horseradish.
That is, the majority of players.
For years, I have been a vocal critic of the NHL Player Safety Department and the off ice officials for their "turn the other cheek" approach to supplemental discipline.
I have to say that today I am applauding the NHL today for ticketing three such offenders in Toronto's Nazem Kadri, Edmonton's Nail Yakupov, and Arizona's Martin Hanzal.
The League announced today that Kadri, Yakupov, and Hanzal have been fined for diving.
Kadri has been fined a total of $5,000 for diving/embellishment, after the NHL logged three individual occasions of embellishment in the past two months.
The first one was filed on February 4 against New Jersey. Kadri received a warning for his on ice actions. The second time, Kadri earned a $2,000 fine which occurred in Ottawa on March 12. The third strike earned Kadri a $3,000 fine on March 21 against Calgary.
Yakupov has been dinged $2,000 for flopping. He was warned October 13 versus Dallas. He had a second offense on March 12 against Arizona.
The NHL also announced that Coyotes forward Martin Hanzal has been fined $2,000 for diving. Hanzal was warned December 6 vs. Carolina, second offense March 12 vs. Edmonton.
Under the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement, Kadri's fourth diving sanction will earn the Toronto native a $4,000 fine for Kadri AND a $2,000 fine for his head coach Mike Babcock.
NHL Rule 64 is designed to bring attention to and more seriously penalize players (and teams) who repeatedly dive and embellish in an attempt to draw penalties. Fines are assessed to players and head coaches on a graduated scale outlined below:
Citation # Player Fine(s) * Head Coach Fine(s)
1 Warning N/A 2 $2,000 N/A 3 $3,000 N/A 4 $4,000 $2,000 5 $5,000 $3,000 6 $5,000 $4,000 7 $5,000 $5,000 8 $5,000 $5,000
* For Head Coach, each FINE issued to a player on his Club counts toward total.
Citations are issued by the National Hockey League Hockey Operations Department, which tracks all games, logs all penalties for diving or embellishment and flags all plays not called on the ice that in its opinion were deserving of such a penalty. A Citation is issued once Hockey Operations, through its internal deliberations, is convinced that a player warrants sanction.