The Players in general.....

[WhamBamCam8]

...in the NHL have really taken advantage of the league mandate for the officials to call everything. Not only our series, but all of them. The dives have been horrendus. They're really making fools out of the officials, who did a good job of doing that on their own already, but the players need to pick up the sportsmanship quotient......

Ironically, it hurts the players right in the wallet to play like that. By helping to further the now widely help public perception of hockey as "broken" and "needing fixing," the players are negatively impacting fan interest. The players should be focused on putting on a great show and playing great hockey. Instead, too many are fixated on getting help from the refs and then lamenting the officiating if it does not go their way. As you are saying, this has even extended to too many players acting out on the ice. All it does is reinforce this negative image of the officials and the league. Sure, there have been many problems in recent times with the refs, but running the game down right there on the ice is not helping anyone. I have never seen a ref raise his arm only after a player cries to him long enough.