The NHL’s Department of Player Safety has offered Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly an in-person hearing for cross-checking Senators center Ridly Greig in the closing seconds of Saturday’s game, per an announcement Sunday. With an in-person hearing, DoPS now has the option to issue Rielly a suspension in excess of five games.
The play in question occurred with seconds remaining in the contest after Greig scored an empty-net goal via a slap shot, increasing Ottawa’s lead to 5-3. During his celebration, Rielly approached Greig and cross-checked him in the face, causing him to fall to the ice. Rielly was assessed a match penalty on the play.
Rielly, 30 next month, had five points in his last four games before facing a potential long-term absence. He has never been fined nor suspended in his 11-year, 769-game career. Toronto’s longest-tenured player is second on the team in assists (36) and fourth in points (43) through 50 games and is logging a career-high 24:21 per game.
Any long-term absence for Rielly puts serious strain on the Maple Leafs’ defense at a critical point in the season as they jockey for playoff positioning. The team’s only true depth puck-moving option not currently in the lineup, right-shot defenseman Conor Timmins, has played just 16 games this season and is currently sidelined with an illness. If neither Timmins nor the currently-injured Mark Giordano can play Tuesday against the Blues with Rielly out, Maxime Lajoie would draw into the lineup, and Timothy Liljegren would likely become the team’s top power play option.
Shouldn’t be any less than Perron.
Classless for sure, but Ridley Grieg will never ever take another slapshot at an empty net. Too bad that Morgan had to pay a price to teach him that lesson.
You are obviously not familiar with Greigs game at all. This is what he does. He absolutely will do that against the Leafs again if given the chance. He just got their best defenceman suspended for multiple games while laughing the whole way off the ice. He’s probably in Rielly’s head for the rest of his career now.
Totally worth it, from a Wings fan thank you.
Give him the Hunter treatment for the TML tax.
Braindead move by Reilly just because Ridley Greig hurt his feelings, At least 5 game’s and that will cripple an already bad Toronto blueline.
Ristolainen just got a little closer to calling Toronto home.
Oh please don’t say that. As I flyers fan I can only get so erect. Don’t give me the hope that a team would willingly trade anything for Risto.
@jumps — Take a peek in the ol’ storage shed. It’s now short two bags of pucks and some dirt. But, rest assured, the GM that pilfered them will spend his jackpot wisely. GMDB should answer his phone with “Hello! Would you like to trade for Risto?” :)
Look, Risto isn’t awful. He’s a serviceable, offense first 3rd pair D man. But Chuck Fletcher traded multiple high picks and a 5 year $25M extension. Torts has gotten a lot out of Risto. But he’s a 3rd pair guy on a good team. And the flyers are in a playoff spot, but they aren’t close right now. It’s just the Metro division is at its weakest in 10-15 years. Really good teams like the Avs, Bolts, & Bruins all went into Philly with the Flyers almost entirely healthy and beat their lights out.
Love this about hockey. There are consequences to actions that disrespect your opponent or the game. Baseball would just be like “let the kids play”
Please explain how that play was disrespecting the opponent and the game.
Maybe he means that Reilly was the one deserving of the consequences?
You throw inside and the batter throws a couple of punches at the pitcher, which leads to a bench clearing brawl and suspensions. You spend too much time admiring the moonshot homerun that you just hit, and then you get beaned at the next at bat, which also leads to a bench clearing brawl and suspensions. I don’t get what the Oriole fan is trying to say other than maybe hockey players wear padding so they can tolerate more fisticuffs than baseball players.
Slap shot into the empty net. Know the game
No. I’m saying in baseball they want to let the batter hit a home run and stare the pitcher down with no retaliation. I’m hockey, when someone tries to show up an opponent, you get facewaahed/shoved at a minimum. I’m not good with the hit to the head, but all for going after him
Yes, I saw the play. You still have not told us how this was showing disrespect for the game and the opponent. My guess is that it violates that amusing and always changing list of unwritten rules that you and your easily offended clan like to use.
Put the puck in the net. You scored an empty netter. It’s called sportsmanship. It’s not rocket science. Hockey has always policed the game itself. That’s why you don’t see guys taunt as much because they know they’ll get thumped next shift or asked to answer with a fight. And what changing list? I think many fans would agree that respect is always a part of hockey. You don’t do a slap shot into an empty net. I have a problem with the hit to the head, but to not expect retaliation is nonsense and has nothing to do with being offended
You still have not explained how taking a slapshot into an empty net was disrespectful or a lack of sportsmanship other than this is your opinion. It was just a version of putting the puck in the net. Again, more from your book of unwritten rules.
Reilly is the most overrated defenceman in the entire league. Clearly he’s the biggest puss too. What a classless disgusting play from a player who wouldn’t know how to block a shot to save his life. Classless clown and a perfect image of the Maple Leafs. The Leagues worst club, the worst team dynamic and a bunch of cry baby players. Hope he’s gone for the rest of the season. Totally idiotic. Oh but a real defenceman (okay forward on D lol) like Cale Makar can’t play in IIHF hockey because of 5 idiots. Hey Reilly you’ve always been an overrated liability and you just proved how much of a snowflake you are you don’t win cups with players like that on your team. Truly disgusting.
Actually he has over 1000 career blocks so I wouldn’t attack that faucet of his game. But his 758 career give aways vs 358 career takeaways says something.
I don’t like him either. But damn he can skate.
Haha oops guess I shoulda fact checked my leaf hating rant haha idiot.
Well that’s fair but so can Matthias Janmark but he couldn’t finish to save his life …and Reilly couldn’t be a real man if he tried. Do that in the 80-90s, you’re a dead man. Too bad there’s no more enforcers to put clowns like him in their place. Idiot. Can skate has some offensive talent oh and wasn’t hugged enough as a child. Scouting report on Morgan Reilly.
While not justified, Person’s penalty happened in the heat of the battle after a teammate was injured. Reilly skated to the corner after a empty net goal and high sticked Greig in the head. He had plenty of time to consider his actions yet deliberately tried to injure Greig. Considering the insignificance of the play leading up to the incident and the fact that Reilly had to skate to the corner to deliver his cheap shot, any thing less then 10 games would be a travesty
100% man. It’s eerily similar to when domi did everything he could to fly into the corner and elbow Neidermayer in the face and guess why cause Stevens was in the box. It’s a leafs tradition!
Arguably both players had intent to injure, regardless of the level of “heat of the moment” situation. Perron was sticking up for his teammate, which within the circles of hockey, is usually justified and rarely frowned upon. Whereas Morgan clearly vented his frustration of the game after a classless act by the opposing player. Now his retaliation isn’t justified but people who have played hockey will take said classless act into account. With a pristine track record; I would doubt he gets more than 3 games. The history of fines, misconduct, suspensions, treatment of officials, and general likability are all taken into account.
What was so classless about the goal? Did Greig endanger anybody? Who exactly was Rielly standing up for? Should get 10 games for that hit. That was classless. A gratuitous hit to the head. Exactly what needs to be taken out of the game.
It’s an in person hearing which usually carries 5 games minimum. Scheifele got 4 playoff games for what I would consider similar.
It’s on-ice victim blaming, that’s it. Even if Grieg had any responsibility here. Rielly went out of his way to hit him stick first in the side of the head/neck from a blind spot. He could’ve cross checked him around the elbow. Could’ve grabbed him from behind, chirped at him, or offered to drop the gloves. Rielly was able to physical control the whole interaction and he did some coward BS like this. The Venn diagram between people justifying what Rielly did and the people who always cry about snowflakes and feelings being hurt is a god damn circle.
Sorry I wasn’t trying to denote the classless act by Morgan, but the slapshot was excessive and a form of showboating, which was disrespectful in itself.
No, I understand what you’re trying to say. But if we’re going to discuss both the slapshot and the cheap shot. They should be different topics and not intertwined.
I loved what Grieg did and honestly, I’d love to see more of it in the NHL. I want to see more trash talk, I want to see teams and players genuinely hate each other. You can hate one another and not try to hurt each other. We don’t need someone trying to be Scott Stevens or Tie Domi out there.
What I think is disrespectful are plays that guys still do that can result in injury. There’s a half dozen slashes a I see almost every night where guys are swinging at the glove hand of a goalie after they have the puck. I had someone slash above my glove in juniors and fracture my forearm and I missed 3 months cause of it. Or some of these dangerous corner hits. What Grieg did jeopardized no one. No one was going to get hurt.
By talking about it together, makes it sound like that kind of behavior on the ice is ever appropriate. Which I think it isn’t. And I don’t care if Rielly doesn’t have any history. He’s a 10 year veteran, that enough should tell you he should know right/wrong. And he’ll likely get away with a slap on the wrist because of that. It’s likely why he’s still even playing. Rielly is probably considered a really nice guy by his teammates, he’s cheap, and he doesn’t f up all the time on the ice. The NHL is full of these low talent, shot blocking savant d-men like him that have long careers cause people like them and not because they’re good at their jobs.
Cause trust me, I’m a flyers fan, and watching Chuck Fletcher take that organization to lows I didn’t think was possible was something. He’s simultaneously one of the nicest people and one of the dumbest & incompetent GMs in North American sports. Growing up my neighbor had a golden retriever who was the sweetest dog but also dumb as box of hammers. 1-2 times every year they had to go to the vet and have this dog’s stomach pumped cause it was eating hockey pucks, bricks, wasp nests, etc. but they couldn’t imagine getting rid of the dog cause the kids liked it and it was a sweet dog. The same thing with guys like Chuck Fletcher and Rielly. It’s why Fletcher got a job with TSN and was an “expert” on their draft day panel.
This is all to say that this behavior shouldn’t happen in the NHL. But when you have low talent, ultimately replaceable goons like Rielly that are even lucky to have a pro career doing shit like this. The league should drop a hammer on someone like this so hard his great grandchildren will still feel the aftershocks.
He slapped it into the net, big whoop. I am sorry if that upsets you as a player than you shouldn’t play. It’s like those players that get mauled for bumping the puck into the net after a whistle. Hockey players clearly need to stop being so hyper-sensitive.
If you played hockey, you would know that there are unwritten rules and a level of professionalism expected. When players are allowed to police their own sport it’s inevitable that a line will be crossed, and a panel of formers hockey players will pass judgement. If you’ve ever been a goalie you would understand why said players get mauled after “bumping” the puck. Just like you would understand why taking the slapshot is classless and warrants a fist in the face. It’s not being hyper sensitive, it’s just being privy to said rules that govern the players. Sometimes there are things you just don’t do… Like piss into the wind.
It should be mentioned that it wasn’t a blind hit and his stick was elevated by Grieg’s glove. Both classless acts. Both shouldn’t be tolerated and have no place in the game. An eye for an eye will make you blind…
I played hockey as a goalie and I still say it’s still stupid garbage that isn’t needed.
And how many fingers do you have? :)
Grieg’s play is very similar to when Zion made a dunk when they were clearly winning the game. Showboating when clearly winning is going to result in some form of negative reaction by the opposition. There are no defined rules, but most will tell you it’s out of respect to the game. When that line is crossed, those who have respected the game feel obligated to police it. Like it or not. This is the way. Grieg will likely have his teeth knocked out next time they play. Reaves will get 12-15 games.
I believe that the precedent has already been set. If I recall correctly, Dale Hunter was suspended 21 games for an eerily similar play. This was not a hockey play. This was a cross-check to the face well after a stoppage in play. It was predatory & with intent. Despite Rielly’s clean history, this kind of play has absolutely no place in hockey. He should be suspended for a minimum of 10 games!
Hunter had a history and it was a blind hit. Completely different.
I’m old school so I say punch him Rielly. Drop the gloves and fight. You assaulted him and Ottawa guys should have come over the boards …
Exactly what I thought. Don’t use your stick. Drop your gloves, grab him and make him fight you. Most he’s gonna get is instigating. He lost his s*** and it’s gonna cost him.
The only difference between this play and Dale Hunter is that Greig saw Rielly coming. I get wanting to send a message but there were far smarter and safer ways to do it. Should be 10 games.
You want this kinda crap out of hockey like I do then you hand him his golf clubs in that meeting. I am tired of pointless cheap shot being taken do lightly. I like physicality but this kinda thing needs to go.
Anything less than 10 games would be a disappointment. Doubt they go as far as Dale Hunter with his 21 game suspension, but it should be a minimum 10 games for sure
One was a blind hit, the other was not. NHL has been very strict in sending a message about blind hits the past 20-30 years. Now they’re being strict on first time offenders to set a precedent. Knowing a player with no history will get 5 games, “dirty” players will think twice, and that is a win to the NHL. We want the emotion and physicality without all the nonsense. A tough line to walk.