Claude Julien wanted to voice his frustrations. 

That’s why, when he was asked a question about playing without Zdeno Chara Sunday night, he said this:

"The frustrating part is that you end up with 17 minutes in the penalty box when you should have been on the power play. It's as simple as that. It's frustrating because tonight, as everybody saw, there was a lot of embellishment and this is embarrassing for our game, embellishing. Right now, they've got over 100 power plays so far and it's pretty obvious why. We're trying to clean that out of our game and it's got to be done soon. 

"It's not about tonight. It's about the game and the embellishment embarrasses our game, and we need to be better at that because it was pretty obvious when P.K. [Subban] gets hit, he throws himself into the glass and holds his head. You know what? If we start calling those penalties for embellishment, maybe teams will stop doing it, but until we take charge of that, it's going to be an issue."

Julien was frustrated, but he couldn’t have been surprised with either the Canadiens or the general state of embellishing in the league. It’s nothing new and it’s something that happens all the time. Perhaps that’s the point Julien’s making – that there’s too much of it – but it isn’t limited to this Canadiens team and it isn’t why the Bruins lost on Sunday.

Every team has players guilty of diving, selling calls, whatever you want to call it. The Habs obviously have more of a reputation, and it dates back a lot further than this season. Know who the head coach of the Canadiens was when Mike Ribeiro faked that injury on the ice in the playoffs against the Bruins in 2004? 

The Bruins didn’t get the calls they wanted on Sunday and they were playing against a team that historically gets all the calls. When Zdeno Chara stood up for Tyler Seguin [Devil’s advocate, but Habs fans will surely point to how quickly Seguin recovered after staying down for just an extra second on the cross-check he received from Alexei Emelin], he got an instigator penalty and a 10-minute misconduct, which is as bad a break as a team and player can get for defending a hit they didn’t like. Emelin’s hit wasn’t the type that will score him a chat with Brendan Shanahan, but it was a cross-check that should have been called and wasn’t.

So between that and what Julien perceived to be embellishments, you can’t blame him for being angry. The Canadiens came from behind and scored the game-winning goal with Chara in the box and it resulted in Boston’s third regular-season loss. It also moved the Canadiens back ahead of the B’s (who have three games in hand) for first place in the Northeast Division and Eastern Conference.

Not to say that Julien’s cries will fall on deaf ears, but it’s hard to see an NHL without embellishing. It’s a physical game and power plays are important. If a guy can help his team by making sure a ref notices, strong character won’t always win out in the decision-making process. Factor in how often refs choose against handing out the diving minor and it’s hard to see players suddenly stopping.

“It's hard on referees because when people embellish, it makes them look bad,” Julien said. “Well, we've just got to make sure we get the right people when it comes to that. When you call the embellishment, maybe they'll stop embarrassing referees."

No fan wants to think that their team is a pack of divers, and that’s fine. If you don’t want to say the guys you root for embellishes, use the blanket “every team does it” argument – just don’t act like there’s a single team in the NHL that has a completely record when it comes to selling calls. Brad Marchand’s done it and so have others. It happens, and it’s part of the game. 

It’s also something that’s subjective. Anyone with access to YouTube (and if you’re reading this, you’re in luck in that department) can find any number of videos of any number of players “diving” and make their judgements. Whether it’s egregiously grabbing a part of the body that wasn’t hit (let’s use Kevin Bieksa as an example there), going down harder on a lighter hit or Subban’s signature trust fall from the 2011 playoffs, it’s there if that’s how you want to view it. You can defend the players you root for and you can point the finger at the rest of the league, but there’s enough video proof of fishy falls to suggest that the Habs aren’t the only team in this argument.

Of course, there are the repeat offenders and the teams with reputations. Subban is one of the most notorious divers in the league and the Montreal’s reputation has been well-earned, but Montreal hasn’t gotten to the top of the standings because of diving and they didn’t win Sunday because of diving.