“Everybody snaps their head back now”: Don Cherry laments the rise of embellishment during playoff games

The NHL Department of Safety has had to deal with the prolonged crisis of balancing the line between calling for penalties and judging whether a player's actions are considered embellishment. With the league in its playoff stage, characterized by physical and gritty hockey, players are more likely to look for man advantages and subsequently be called for embellishment.

As per NHL rulebook point 64, an embellishment call is imposed for a dive or making the most out of a hit. In the regular season, players like Josh Norris, Dougie Hamilton and Oskar Sundqvist were fined for feigning injuries. Vancouver Canucks coach Rick Toucchet was vocal about head snapping and openly called for the NHL to have stricter measures.

During this year's playoffs, one of the instances saw Ottawa Senators center Tim Stutzle diving, which earned Toronto Maple Leafs center Steven Lorentz a major penalty. The Leafs and Senators went back and forth about the incident during Thursday's Game 3 postgame interviews. Another incident saw Vegas Golden Knights Ivan Barbashev handed a minor penalty for embellishment in Game 3 against the Minnesota Wild, also on Thursday.

During the latest episode of his "The Grapevine" podcast, Don Cherry answered a fan's question about the rising number of head-snappers. As per the veteran NHL coach and former broadcaster, the league will not be able to reduce embellishment anymore.

"Well, we don’t get it out of the game," Cherry said on Sunday (12:00). "It’s here to stay. You'll never get it out of the game. Now, everybody snaps their head back now. Yeah, every guy snaps their head back and acts like they're hurt."

Habs HC Martin St. Louis hits back at referees for calls during Game 4 vs. Capitals

Incidents like Tim Stutzle's and Ivan Barbashev's have made referees resort to stricter action. Montreal Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis spoke against it after Game 3 against the Washington Capitals on Friday, saying that while trying to get harsher with head-snappers, the referees missed some key calls.

"I'll be careful with my words, but it's hard to watch some of these calls," St. Louis said to reporters. "Tonight, the mandate was about embellishing. Kent (Hughes, Montreal's general manager) talks with the supervisor each game day. We are told the things they want to clean up. Embellishment was one of them."

Alex Ovechkin was handed a minor penalty for a hit on Jake Evans while Tom Wilson slammed Alexandre Carrier in the third period on Sunday, which led to a goal for Washington, and the team eventually won 5-2 to take a 3-1 series lead.