How Penguins' Sidney Crosby got embellishment penalty after taking a Flyers stick to the face

Sidney Crosby got hit in the face with a stick.

Somehow, the Pittsburgh Penguins captain ended up in the penalty box anyway.

It was an odd moment late in the first period against the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 3 on Wednesday.

Garnet Hathaway didn't seem to intentionally hit Crosby with his stick, but the contact was clear.

Crosby went down to the ground hard.

They both ended up with two-minute penalties.

How did Sidney Crosby get a penalty?

Crosby was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty with the specific dynamic being "embellishment."

This is what happened:

Garnet Hathaway catches Sidney Crosby with a slight high stick and both players head to the penalty box. pic.twitter.com/FrqnXjXZR4

Hathaway did a lot of shouting at Crosby, clearly not happy with the way Crosby sold the high stick.

By the same token, that can't have felt that great. It seems like it'd be hard for the refs to know that Crosby embellished versus feeling actual pain.

That was the ruling, though, and so both Hathaway and Crosby ended up in the penalty box.

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