Has diving become a normalized part of the game?

[The Professional]

I have been following the game for more than two decades, and I have to say, I have noticed that diving seems to have become a normalized, accepted part of the game more than ever. Guys are flopping left and right to draw calls on a nightly basis, but the most disheartening part is that no one seems to call it out. Officials rarely call embellishments, and when obvious dives happen, hockey commentators almost never call it out on the broadcast. I can't tell how many times I've rolled my eyes at guys clearly letting themselves fall to the ice and the refs call a penalty and not a peep from the hockey media people who just go along with it like it's normal.

Am I the only one who's disgusted by this cultural shift in the NHL? There was for sure not as much diving in the NHL even just 10-15 years ago, what happened?

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[tarheelhockey]

I have been following the game for more than two decades, and I have to say, I have noticed that diving seems to have become a normalized, accepted part of the game more than ever. Guys are flopping left and right to draw calls on a nightly basis

*trying not to make this about you watching Sutzle every night*

 

[tabness]

honestly always has been

just that the game is exceptionally soft now but players still gonna try to draw calls

 

[Hallonbroder]

Yes, thanks to all those diving euros!

 

[Machinehead]

It always was. Any notion that it used to not be is nostalgia talking.

 

[Devilsfan118]

Absolutely, and it seems certain teams/coaches are encouraging it.

 

[Megustaelhockey]

So which play from tonight are we talking about here?

 

[Hunter368]

Meh, I’ve watched 45+ years and always been divers. Hope no one thinks their team and players haven’t dived lol

 

[Gregor Samsa]

Ice skating is hard especially when you add in physical contact. Probably most plays that fans consider to be dives aren’t “100% acting jobs”, I’d reckon those are pretty rare

 

[983 others]

it is what it is.

just look at the panthers, canes, sens, etc. big time diving teams and they all get rewarded for it.

 

[The Professional]

*trying not to make this about you watching Sutzle every night*

I know stutzle dives and I've called him out on these boards many times.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

It always was. Any notion that it used to not be is nostalgia talking.

Ahh the old nostalgia defense.

Sorry to break it to you, but there wasn't always diving like it is now. And it can't be dismissed as simple nostalgia. It was much more frowned upon in decades past. It's much more prevalent and accepted.

I think as officiating has gotten more incompetent and there's more game management, players are looking to draw calls by flopping. But years ago it used to be frowned upon.

 

[Machinehead]

Ahh the old nostalgia defense.

Sorry to break it to you, but there wasn't always diving like it is now. And it can't be dismissed as simple nostalgia. It was much more frowned upon in decades past. It's much more prevalent and accepted.

I think as officiating has gotten more incompetent and there's more game management, players are looking to draw calls by flopping. But years ago it used to be frowned upon.

It's frowned upon now. It's still happening just like it always was.

 

[Kegs]

Ask the Florida panthers

 

[EXTRAS]

Nah. If you used to dive your own team would even look down on you. Maybe there was some diving but it would be on something truly deserving. Guys get bumped now and go flying. Back in the day it would be a guy punches you twice in the head hard, you'd fall, and the guy who punched you would yell at the ref "hey he's just floppin thats bs" lol even if he was legitimately hurt.

Hockeys the same as soccer these days.

 

[Tie Domi Esquire]

1000% yes. Even being a rat is promoted and glorified these days. It's sickening to put it mildly. Anyone saying that it's always been like this is being ignorant on purpose.

 

[StarsWizard]

Some of it could be down to the game being played at a faster pace and ice skating being quite hard. To give players the benefit of the doubt.

 

[Bouboumaster]

Only a couple of bitchass players do that shit on the regular and the worst offender of them all, hands down, is Tim Stützle

 

[DearDiary]

No one in the history of hockey has advocated harder for diving than Tim Stutzle. He wears it with honor on his sweater each game and stuns all with his classless display towards winning by any means necessary. Diving at the rate of bullets firing out of a machine gun, Stutzle has become a pioneer in normalizing falling to the ice at the lightest of touches.

 

[Bounces R Way]

There's always been divers and there's always been teams known for it. It's a widely held and generally accepted theory that the Canucks and Oilers basically invented the rotten stuff.

It does seem to be getting worse and worse. But also they just call more bullshit, some of you seem to like it that way but I don't. I think in a well played hockey game you should have to fight some contact to get inside whether you have the puck or not. Genuine physical battle is the ingredient that gives this dish its best flavor. Now half the time anybody hits the ice it's a penalty. Offensive players who are so inclined to hit the ice on purpose and are tired of a hard 200ft forecheck and backcheck 5v5 game with no room to operate are being rewarded with some nice cushiony dick around one man up time.

I can accept a little of it in the name of gamesmanship, after all we can't put Nazem Kadri out of a job. Rats gonna rat. 1 maybe 2 a game. It's the periods where it gets to be every other shift some kind of embellishing is going on that turn the stomach a bit. With this generation of players those periods are not as rare as they used to be. As a qualified hater I blame Crosby, McDavid, and LeBron.

 

[Acallabeth]

Yes, thanks to all those diving euros!

And soccer-loving immigrants!

 

[sbhnur]

Yes, thanks to all those diving euros!

As german I know european hockey well. I don't like the soft part of european hockey too much but it's rather a problem the dives get called and wayyyy too less embellishment penalties are given.

Years ago I enjoyed it so much when diving got you a embellishment penalty in the NHL. Totally missing it nowadays. Kinda sad.

 

[quietbruinfan]

Diving has existed probably forever. The game is faster now, so more players do it more often now.

But it has existed since expansion at least. Bill Barber was first infamous one I can remember, but I bet there were others pre-expansion.
To answer the normalization part of this more fully, YES. Refs have stopped calling embellishment just like they stopped calling charging 3o years ago so we see more dangerous hits.

 

[NyQuil]

I know stutzle dives and I've called him out on these boards many times.

He’s really cut it out of his game this season but no one is going to notice or care.

 

[Based Anime Fan]

It's not so much that it's happening more but that with the number of cameras and angles, and losers like TicTacOmar clipping every little thing, we see it all now. Theres a million replays for games where even 10 years ago not everything that happened in a game was dissected to such an extent.