Got a question on rule clarification, comments on rule enforcements or some memorable NHL stories? Kerry wants to answer your emails at cmonref@tsn.ca. Hey Kerry, I need you to explain this to me. How can you call opposite, offsetting penalties at the same time? By this I mean calling a diving penalty right alongside and tripping penalty? In Saturdays Canucks-Flames game, there was an offsetting penalty called against Kevin Bieska and Markus Granlund. Bieksa was called for hooking while Granlund was called for holding the stick. My question is how you can call these penalties? How can a player be called for tripping if the other player was diving?? How can Kevin be called for hooking when the Calgary player clearly had a hold of his stick? For me this does not make sense. If I dive, then you clearly did not trip me. If I tripped you, then clearly you did not dive. Please help clarify this so I do not have to yell louder at the TV while watching games. Thanks, Justin Clark, Vancouver Justin: First, let me explain how offsetting penalties can in fact be called on a play, after which I will provide my take on why that should not have been the case once Markus Granlund grabbed and pulled Kevin Bieksas stick under and through his own arms. Justin, you cited diving as a secondary penalty which often leaves fans confused and scratching their heads. Diving/embellishment is a current hot-button-issue that has been allowed to flourish in recent years. Embellishment thrived in epidemic proportions during the playoffs last season and drew comparisons to poor theatrical performances demonstrated in soccer. Until this current season, the referees have not been given the full support of management that they required to eradicate diving from the game. Had the refs received the necessary support, I am confident embellishment would have been greatly diminished similar to the successful measures taken to deal with obstruction a few years ago. Any previous lack of support however, appears to have changed through a strong mandate given to the officials at their training camp in September and continued to this point of the season. Players are being held accountable for unnatural falls to various forms of restraint (illegal or otherwise). While it is not often that we see a stand-alone diving penalty, they have been assessed with more frequency this season than in the past. Repeat diving offenders are not only being fined but are subjected to public embarrassment and additional scrutiny by the officiating community by having their names published. Let me explain how a referee can call a tripping infraction and a diving penalty on the same play. Once the referee raises his arm to signal any infraction that he determines has been committed, the resulting actions of the player fouled are also under close scrutiny. Nothing used to annoy me more than when I responded immediately to a legitimate infraction only to have the player that had been fouled attempt to sell it through embellishment/diving. Players that embellish must be held accountable for their dishonesty along with the ultimate embarrassment they heap upon the game. The referees are charged to use their authority and discretion wisely when determining if a player resorts to embellishment. I support them in their efforts. While I fully support the referees cause to eliminate diving and readily admit that offsetting penalties are sometimes deserved, I do not believe that Kevin Bieksa committed a hooking violation on this play. Bieksa cut across from his right side defence position, just inside the Canuck blue line, to accidentally deflect a loose puck onto the stick of Granlund who was attacking the Canuck zone from his right side. Bieksa responded by bringing his stick down and across the thigh pad of Granlund in an effort to apply a legal stick-check. The stick of Bieska did not hook or impede the hands or body of the Flames attacker at this point but instead bounced off Granlunds thigh pad. Bieksas stick was then firmly grabbed and controlled by the left hand of Granlund. Referees are instructed to apply a catch and release standard whenever a player uses his hand to relocate a stick that is placed in a vulnerable or unsafe location about his body. The legal catch and release (closing hand on the stick for safety measures) is distinctly different from fending off an active stick check with an open palm or forearm designed to protect the puck. Both maneuvers are deemed legal so long as the closed hand on the stick is executed quickly and only designed to move an opponents out of harms way. If the stick is held for any extended time to gain an advantage then a minor penalty should be assessed to the attacking player for holding the stick. (Rule 54.2) On this play the referee did not react to Bieksas initial stick-check action, nor did he respond by raising his arm when Granlund firmly grasped the stick in his hand and continued attacking toward the net. Bieksa had no choice but to raise his right arm in surrender and ultimately give up on the play, aside from continuing to move his feet, once his stick was effectively taken from him. Granlund could have avoided a penalty if he had released and pushed the stick away from his body in this moment. Instead, Granlund used his hand to further relocate Bieksas stick under his left arm and across his body. At this point of the play the referee had still not yet raised his arm to signal an infraction for either hooking (Bieksa) or holding of the stick (Granlund). It wasnt until Granlund attempted to make a play near the net and lost the puck that the referee raised his arm and assessed offsetting minor penalties. The only infraction committed on this play was by Markus Granlund. Since Granlund had possession and control of the puck at the time he grabbed, relocated, and clamped down on Bieksas stick the whistle should have been blown to impose a holding the stick penalty prior to any subsequent attempt by the Calgary attacker to make a play with the puck. There are situations when offsetting penalties are most appropriate Justin, this just wasnt one of them. Carl Yastrzemski Jersey . What they did need, the Devils got from Patrik Elias. Elias scored a power-play goal 40 seconds into overtime to give the New Jersey Devils a 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars. 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