GARRIOCH: Ridly Greig’s empty-netter has Toronto Maple Leafs fuming

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The Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t appreciate the way Ridly Greig stuck the nail in the coffin in final round of the Battle of Ontario Saturday night.

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The Ottawa Senators rookie winger iced a 5-3 victory at the Canadian Tire by firing a slap shot into an empty net and that sent Toronto defenceman Morgan Rielly over the edge.

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A fuming Rielly crosschecked Greig in the head because the Leafs didn’t appreciate his actions and, as a result, he will face discipline from the NHL’s department of player safety.

The league’s safety group confirmed Sunday that it was has offered Rielly an in-person hearing. That means he could face more than a five-game suspension for the ugly act.

The goal came with 5.1 seconds left on the clock and sealed the two points for the Senators in a season they haven’t always had a lot to cheer about.

“That was a stupid thing to do by their guy at the end,” said Leafs’ goalie Martin Jones, who was watching from the bench.

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Apparently, there’s a right way and wrong to score an empty net goal in case anybody was wondering.

Should Greig have slapped the puck with every ounce of energy he had? In the words of former captain Daniel Alfredsson, probably not.

But this was a rivalry game and these are just different because it just feels like a playoff game when the two teams skate onto the ice.

Wait until Toronto fans find out that Greig is the son of a former Leaf! His father, Mark, suited up for 13 games with the Leafs during the 1993-94 campaign and spent time with the club’s American Hockey League affiliate in St. Johns, NFLD.

The point was made to me in a text from a friend Sunday morning that you don’t see National Football League players attacking each other because they didn’t like the way the ball was spiked after an opposing player scored a touchdown.

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Naturally, the Senators didn’t seem to mind it, but they didn’t like Rielly going after Greig with a shot to the head, either.

“The league will look at it. That’s not a hockey play,” said interim coach Jacques Martin. “That’s just frustration or something. It’s not part of the game.”

Martin added: “He put the puck in the net. Whether he shoots it or pushes it, (what Rielly did) that shouldn’t happen.”

Still, the Leafs were already frustrated and that left them fuming. Greig needed medical attention before he left the ice and there was no update on his condition post-game. He did leave on his own.

Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe told TSN’s Claire Hanna he felt the response by Rielly was the right thing to do.

“I thought it was appropriate,” Keefe said. “(Rielly’s) reacting to the play. Their player has the right to do what he wants in that moment and our players have the right to react. That’s the emotions of the game and that’s the way that it goes.”

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The Senators can understand the frustration by the Leafs but didn’t like the actions by Rielly.

“You never really know what Greig is going to do,” said centre Josh Norris. “I loved it, but if I was on the other side I wouldn’t have liked it either. I didn’t really like the retaliation and I understand their frustration. But it’s over with and I guess it was entertaining.”

Rielly was given a cross-checking minor and a game misconduct by they officials, but he’s never faced any supplementary discipline during his career.

The guess in some circles is he’ll get three or four games. The Leafs don’t play until Tuesday and didn’t skate Sunday so we’ll likely have to wait until Monday to find out what kind of action the league will take.

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The reality is Greig got caught up in the emotion of the night and the slapshot was only clocked at 73 miles per-hour. The sellout crowd of 19,679 was made up largely of Toronto fans and this was a way to silence the crowd to make sure they headed to the exits.

“Sometimes the emotions get the best of you,” alternate captain Claude Giroux said. “For people who know Ridly, he’s a great kid and sometimes the emotions get the best of you and the crowd was in the game too. You don’t like to see him going down like that.”

Centre Shane Pinto thought it was entertaining and had a hard time wiping the smile off his face.

“(Greig’s) play was pretty funny to say the least. That was interesting at the end,” Pinto said with a laugh. “It was a tough play all around. They thought they had to do that and I just hope (Greig) is okay.”

Just to stir the pot a bit on social media, the Senators named Greig the performer of the game. After all, he was plus-4 in the 19 minutes he was on the ice and his goal did ice the game.

Some commentators called the move by Greig “classless”. Really? That’s not exactly the case and Rielly should pay the price with a suspension but we’ll wait to see if that actually happens.

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

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