Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly has been suspended for five games for his cross-check to the head of Ottawa Senators‘ forward Ridly Greig. The ruling of five games is significant because, for anything under five games, Rielly can only appeal to Commissioner Gary Bettman.
He was offered an in-person hearing, which means he can receive up to a five-plus-game suspension. This came after Greig scored the empty-net goal by taking a slap shot from five feet away to ice the game for his team. This caught Rielly’s attention, and in an attempt to cross-check Greig, his stick caught him up high in the face area.
Regardless of what team you root for, this type of play is very dangerous. We all get the intention that Rielly had, though; he felt that Greig’s slap shot on the empty net was disrespectful, so he wanted to let him know that. Unfortunately, he did so in the worst way. Instead, he should have dropped the gloves or even body-checked him and then challenged him to a fight. Lost in all of this, though, is Greig’s breaking an unwritten rule in hockey.
If you look back to Dec. 19, 2015, against the Anaheim Ducks and Calgary Flames, Ryan Kesler did the same thing as Greig, and the Flames responded with aggression. However, they didn’t cross-check anyone in the head as a response. Switching back the Maple Leafs and Senators, this is one of those situations where the intention to go over to Greig was right; however, the way he went about it wasn’t the best.
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Rielly will miss the next five games, which are important to his club. They currently sit tied for the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and will need to go on a little run here to get themselves out of a wild-card spot and into third. With the state of the Maple Leafs’ blue line in the last 20 games, losing Rielly will have a large impact. The Maple Leafs are set to play the St. Louis Blues, Philadelphia Flyers, Anaheim Ducks, Blues, and Arizona Coyotes while Rielly watches from the press box. He will be eligible to return against the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024.