Ottawa Senators forward Zack Smith has been fined for diving/embellishment. The $2,000 fine comes after a warning issued to Smith last month.
Smith received a warning after the Senators’ game against the Vancouver Canucks on November 12. He did not draw a penalty with his dive in that game.
His second incident, which resulted in the fine, came on December 10 when Ottawa faced off against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Smith drew a holding call against Tampa’s Steven Stamkos from referee Ghislain Hebert:
As a reminder, here’s the league’s scale for diving/embellishment penalties:
Smith, is the second player to hit two citations this season; Detroit’s Teemu Pulkkinen was the first. While fines are made public, warnings are not. Players can receive a citation regardless of whether they were called for diving during the game or if their infraction was identified through video review by the league.
The Diving/Embellishment Review Process
The NHL’s Hockey Operations department tracks every diving or embellishment penalty called on the ice. They also review each game to identify possible dives that were missed by the on-ice officials. (In some cases, they even rescind those diving penalties that may have been called during a game. Boston’s Brad Marchand was the beneficiary of such a modification.)
Once the Hockey Ops team agrees that a dive has taken place, they issue a citation. Nine individuals participate in the review of each incident. If six decide that a dive has taken place, the player is cited.
That’s two fines handed out so far, along with an unknown number of warnings. Who’ll be next?
