‘Name-and-Shame’ List Idea for Diving Would Be A Flop

While the on-again, off-again discussions (because it would be stupid to call them “negotiations”) continue over a new NHL collective bargaining agreement, there was also a two-day “summit” focusing on enforcement of the rules in the game.

The “best” suggestion to come out of these meetings? Divers and floppers are bad for the game (no question there), so let’s come up with a “most-wanted” list of the worst offenders and circulate it to each club, and have them put it up in each club’s dressing room and referees’ change rooms.

The idea behind this “name and shame” list is more than a little naive. Does anyone really think that Brad Marchand or Ryan Kesler or Kris Letang are really going to care about such a list? No one can hide on the Internet, and anyone who cares to do 30 seconds of research can find out at least who the fans think are the worst offenders are.

If such a name-and-shame tactic had any actual effect, it would have worked by now. The perception of NHL players is that they are honourable athletes. However, three of the most egregious perceived offenders have been listed in a previous paragraph, and it’s very unlikely they’re going to feel worse as a result of public embarrassment.

The ones who engage in this sort of activity are looking for a competitive edge any way they can get it. They see it happen in other sports, most famously in soccer where players fall as though they had been shot by a sniper, writhing around on the pitch until they see a free kick or penalty has been awarded, then get up and run around again as though nothing happened.

This leads us to the core problem: lack of enforcement of the existing rules. It is exceedingly rare for officials to actually penalize players when it happens. Generally, a referee will call the perceived infraction, then call a player for embellishment, essentially rendering both meaningless. With that kind of wishy-washy application of the rules, there is no incentive for players to stop trying to draw a referee’s attention to infractions.

So what’s the solution? In the past, the only people who could call penalties were the on-ice officials. Now there are all sort of people sitting in booths or in a “war room” in the NHL’s head office in Toronto, watching plays and making rulings based on what they saw during plays. It’s not a big deal when an on-ice official’s call is overruled; it’s time to apply that standard to flopping and diving.

If a referee calls coincidental penalties which involve such plays, have an off-ice official signal the penalty box, where referees confer with the off-ice officials, to indicate that a call should have been ruled a dive or embellishment without a penalty being instigated by another player.

Enforce the rules, and get help to do so when necessary. That will go much further than “wanted” posters and “shame” lists.