Web site names Sidney Crosby, Dustin Brown and Sean Avery among its ‘top 5 actors’

For the most part, hockey is a sport of honor. Just look at the way enforcers conduct themselves; they can be menacing monsters on the ice and gentle giants when they are away from the game.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t some regrettable moments, though. One of the worst offenses a player can be guilty of is “diving.” In case you’re not familiar, diving is a divisive term used when a fan/commentator/general observer believes a player appears to embellish an infraction in hopes of earning their team a power play.

After a while, certain players earn a reputation for being divers. Sometimes it’s fair, sometimes it’s a matter of people picking on a player they already held some prejudice against.

The Pegasus News often takes an interesting and sardonic look at hockey with its “Thursday Morning Cupcheck” feature and today’s piece was a good example of that. Today’s off-beat subject was the NHL’s “top five actors” which included ratings for how effective their antics really are.

Fifth place went to Philadelphia Flyers pest Daniel Carcillo, who was penalized for his tendency to be more of a curse than a blessing to his team. New York Rangers agitator Sean Avery earned fourth place, as Todd Maternowski notes that “The Avery Rule” ruined his credibility with referees. Much-reviled Anaheim Ducks power forward Corey Perry came in at third, earning comparisons to ’90s villain Claude Lemieux.

It gets really interesting once the list pairs down to the final two, though.

2. Sidney Crosby: To be honest, Sid probably dives at roughly the same clip as any other #1 center playing 22 important minutes a night. But because of the NHL’s single-minded campaign to feature him as “God, But Better-Looking” –not to mention the (unspoken?) requirement that every play-by-play announcer highlight Sid whenever he’s on the ice, even for uneventful shifts– means the microscope will always be on Crosby, whether he’s really diving or not. Of course, this, this, this and a whopping helping of this don’t help matters much.

(snip)

Effectiveness Rating: A+. No player, perhaps in any of the major sports, gets the Benefit of the Referee more than Crosby. Not even Dwayne Wade. At least, until Sid reaches an unmarketable age, at which point the NHL will inevitably abandon him in favor of the next dashing #1 overall pick. That’s when Flyers-Penguins games will really get interesting.

For such a talented player, Crosby earns a lot of heat for possibly being a dirty player and his occasionally misguided decisions to get into various fights. Is it a matter of the talented pivot being a brat or is that just what comes from being hyper-competitive? Either way, his play on the ice isn’t nearly as squeaky clean as his public image.

To be honest, I thought Crosby would be the top guy, but I think that their choice for No. 1 is appropriate … to a point.

1. Dustin Brown:

Even Manu Ginobili screams at Brown to “GET!! UP!!” when watching Kings broadcasts. Eastern Conference fans might not know about this guy, but they should: no one even comes close to drawing as many penalties as Brown. Not Crosby, not Ovechkin, not Briere. Rank amateurs. And it’s every year. I’ll believe Crosby is the league’ biggest diver when he piledrives himself to the ice twice in one shift.

OK, I’ll admit that I like Brown’s game in many ways but there’s no denying that he draws a lot of penalties.

Does that mean that Brown (or Crosby, Avery, Carcillo and Perry) really deserve their reputations as “divers” or “actors”? Well, I’ll let you decide that one in the comments.

Click here for the article, which also includes some amusing honorable mentions.