Now that the 2010 Playoffs is underway, I personally am anxiously awaiting more occurrences of something that has happened in just about every edition of the NHL playoffs. What I’m looking forward to is not over time games or great goaltending battles. No, it’s when seasoned veterans take advantage of the fact that the refs will more than likely give them the benefit of the doubt in just about every potential penalty situation. The veterans then start diving or some other action that just draws power plays for their given team.

This event usually happens when a veteran, while the referee is looking away, does some form of a dive or a flailing dive like they were shot with a sniper rifle. The diving player then pretends to be injured which almost always draws a whistle sending their team to the power play. The veterans keep doing this until the on-ice officials get wise and stop calling these dives for penalties.

It’s happened at least once in the games that I’ve watched in the 2010 playoffs (can’t watch some others playoff games due to asinine blackout restrictions on NHL Gamecenter rendering it virtually useless). This is something that fans should be on the lookout for in these playoffs because it will happen.

I’m dubbing this ‘The Chris Chelios guide to being a crafty veteran’. Chelios wasn’t the first person to start this and he most certainly will not be the last. However, he is the most common person who has done this in the playoffs over the years.

Again, it’s just something for you hockey fans to keep an eye out for.