diving penalty

[bchandler]

This weekend I was at a division 1 hockey game and there was a call that made no sense to many of us. There were matching minors, tripping and diving. How can the player who was tripped be called for taking a dive? That makes no sense at all.

[QuebecRef87]

I'm not a hockey ref but I can give you an answer since I saw this situation happen a couple of times in the NHL.

It actually makes sense if you take the time to think about it: the offender commited a tripping penalty and the offended player exagerated his fall, hoping to get a power play for his team, but not knowing that the ref would have called a penalty anyway. So the ref penalized the trip, but also the unsportsmanlike acting.

Just my 2 cents, but I could bet I'm right!

[jicecone]

Originally Posted by thegr8zamboni99

You are correct QuebecRef87. The player that commited the diving infraction showed no respect or confidence in the referees to make the right call.

-Zamboni

I somewhat agree with the original poster, either the offender tripped the player or he didn't. Diving is usually used where a player tries to draw a penalty where none existed at all.

I can't remember if NCAA has the 2 min unsportsmanlike penalty now however, it used to be a misconduct. Therefore the official may have felt that the unsportsmanlike act was not worth 10 min but, still was not necessary and he assessed the 2min diving penalty in lieu of the unsportsmanlike penalty.

There are times that the rules do not cover all situations however, that does not mean inappropiate behavior should be allowed.