Jack Edwards: Diving Is ‘a Crisis in the NHL,’ Canadiens Are Most ‘Egregious’ Offenders

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Apr 28, 2011

Jack Edwards: Diving Is 'a Crisis in the NHL,' Canadiens Are Most 'Egregious' Offenders Jack Edwards does not like diving in hockey. Not one bit.

NESN’s play-by-play man was a guest on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Toucher and Rich on Thursday morning, after the Bruins beat the Canadiens in overtime of Game 7 on Wednesday night, and he sounded off on the acting he saw taking place on the ice.

“I like Brian Gionta, I like Mike Cammalleri a lot, but what I can’t stand is Roman Hamrlik diving. I just can’t stand it,” Edwards said.

“Here’s the problem: It’s dishonest,” he elaborated. “I don’t like it when Bruins do it. I thought [Zdeno] Chara took a dive [in Game 7] when Lars Eller hit him. I didn’t like it. I don’t like it when players dive. It’s just patently dishonest. It’s a crisis in the NHL. The league needs to address it immediately and reinforce the fact that you’re gonna have to play this game honestly.

“The Bruins play the game far more honestly than the vast majority of teams, and Montreal is the egregious and runaway leader in this category of just flopping and attempting to get calls out of the refs.”

Edwards also discussed the attitude expressed by “a lot of people in the Montreal organization” that led to his postgame speech that conjured up memories of the patriots of the 1770s.

“[Boston has] some of the most important history in human history,” he said on Toucher and Rich. “I hope that people in this region can get a grasp on how important that was and how all those people put everything on the line and basically gave the finger to the most powerful military force in the history of the world up to that point and said, ‘Come and get us, because we’re gonna do what’s right.’

“When you see this kind of imperious conceit that we see from the Montreal Canadiens, acting as if, ‘We’re better than you because, well … we were born that way,’ you gotta say, ‘You know what? You’re full of it, and I don’t bow to any crown.’

“And that’s the way the Bruins play hockey, and I’m darn proud of that and proud to be associated with them.”


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