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Luke Gazdic calls out several players for embellishment in Game 6.
 

Luke Gazdic calls out several players for embellishment in Game 6.

The former NHL player is sick of what he has described as an embellishment epidemic.

Jonathan Larivee

The National Hockey League has an epidemic on their hands according to one former player, an epidemic that has come in the form of NHL players taking far too many dives.

On Saturday night, during the second intermission of Game 6 between the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks, former NHL player Luke Gazdic used his spot on the Sportsnet broadcast to get on his soap box and call out the ugly behavior that he has seem from players around the National Hockey League.

"I think we officially have an embellishment epidemic on our hands in the National Hockey League," said a disappointed looking Gazdic. "It's not just this series it's all across the National Hockey League."

In spite of the fact that Gazdic believes this to be a league-wide issue, he did single out a number of instances and players from the series between the Canucks and Oilers as examples of the bad behavior he wants to see taken out of the sport. Players like Brock Boeser, Nikita Zadorov, Connor McDavid Conor Garland, Zach Hyman and more all got the wrong kind of attention from Gazdic.

"It's every single player honestly on both teams," said Gazdic. "As soon as anyone is getting touched here it's straight down to the ice."

Gazdic made no effort to hide how terrible he thinks this is for the sport of hockey.

"There's just flopping all over the ice," said Gazdic shaking his head. "It's honestly tough to watch at this point."

There was a great observation from fellow panelist and fellow former NHL player Kevin Bieksa following Gazdic's rant, one that may be worth keeping an eye on.

"You notice the guys that are doing the embellishment are all power play players?" asked Bieksa.

You can check out their full comments in the short clip below.