NEW YORK – Florida Panthers forward Nick Cousins has been fined $2,000 as supplementary discipline under NHL Rule 64 (Diving/Embellishment), the National Hockey League announced today.
NHL Rule 64 is designed to bring attention to and more seriously penalize players (and teams) who repeatedly dive and embellish in an attempt to draw penalties. Fines are assessed to players and head coaches on a graduated scale outlined below:
Citation # Player Fine(s) * Head Coach Fine(s)
1 Warning N/A
2 $2,000 N/A
3 $3,000 N/A
4 $4,000 N/A
5 $5,000 $2,000
6 $5,000 $3,000
7 $5,000 $4,000
8 $5,000 $5,000
* For head coaches, each FINE issued to a player on his club counts toward his total. Four FINES issued to one player or a club collectively results in the head coach receiving his first fine.
Citations are issued by the National Hockey League Hockey Operations Department, which tracks all games, logs all penalties for diving or embellishment, and flags all plays not called on the ice that in its opinion were deserving of such a penalty. A Citation is issued once Hockey Operations, through its internal deliberations, is convinced that a player warrants sanction.
Cousins was issued a Warning following an incident flagged by NHL Hockey Operations during NHL Game No. 168 at Chicago on Nov. 4. His second Citation, which triggered the $2,000 fine, was issued for an incident at 14:23 of the second period during NHL Game No. 928 vs. Buffalo on Feb. 27.
The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
