Nikolaj Ehlers guilty of one of the worst dives yet this season against Leafs

Photo credit: Sportsnet

Late in the Leafs’ 6-4 win over the Winnipeg Jets, a love tap from Simon Benoit led to one of the worst dives of the season by Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers.

On Monday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs broke out of their slump by defeating the previously undefeated Winnipeg Jets 6-4, powered by a hat trick from former Leafs captain John Tavares.

While there were many positives from the game, most notably the win, there were also some drawbacks. One issue was the team’s failure to capitalize on power plays as the blue and white went 0/2 once again, despite a complete overhaul of their power play units. Another issue was their inability to stay out of the box.

While there certainly were some calls that were deserved by the Leafs, one call in particular was downright awful. It involved Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers, who initially fought off a check from Leafs defenseman Simon Benoit, but then a second or two later, just went down on his own after feeling Benoit’s stick tap him in the skate/shin guard.

 

 

In the clip shown, it’s clear that Ehlers initiated a falling motion, which was quite delayed. He seemed to fall after he had lost the puck, a second after Benoit tapped him with only one hand on his stick, an action hardly substantial enough to warrant such a response. Ehlers clearly dove to try and draw a penalty and get his team back in the game, which is an unfortunate common occurrence in sports.

This marked the second consecutive game in which the referees made a questionable call against the Maple Leafs. The refs had previously called a controversial penalty against William Nylander during an overtime loss to the Boston Bruins on Saturday, though at least Nylander was guilty of his infraction, even if the officials never actually saw it.

Fortunately, this latest call did not result in a goal against, as the Leafs still emerged victorious and successfully killed off the penalty against Benoit. However, it would be nice if the Maple Leafs weren’t facing the opposing teams and the officials every night.