Ridly Greig’s actions speak louder than words for the Ottawa Senators

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The most overused phrase to describe Ridly Greig is that he’s a man of few words, but, by all accounts, it’s the most accurate description.

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When the Ottawa Senators winger does speak, he chooses his words carefully, doesn’t say anything that could be used as bulletin-board material and, quite frankly, could be considered a headline writer’s worst nightmare.

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He doesn’t make himself the centre of attention and was caught off guard by the amount he got after he playfully slapped a puck into an empty net Saturday night in the club’s 5-3 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Canadian Tire Centre.

Thrilled with getting the opportunity to ice a game in a building where 70% of the crowd was made up of Toronto fans, Greig got caught up in the moment by firing a slapshot and then paid the price after with a cross-check in the head from Leafs defenceman Morgan Rielly.

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Naturally, that response caught Greig off guard.

“I don’t think you’re ever expecting the guy to come cross-check you in the face. But I also am not sure if he meant to do that,” Greig said in his first public comments since the incident following the club’s 6-3 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday.

He is well aware that people take either one side or the other and there is no in between.

“Everybody is going to have an opinion on it, probably they’re going to love it or hate it, doesn’t matter to me … whatever,” Greig said.

Greig had no malicious intent by using a slapshot to stick the nail in the Leafs’ coffin with a national audience watching on Hockey Night in Canada. There’s no way he could have predicted the response that followed and the debate about his decision to put the game away like that.

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“It was just a lot of adrenaline,” Greig said of the slapshot that was only measured at 73 mph. “Just the heat of the moment. The game was an emotional game. Just got a breakaway and thought I’d bury it.”

And for the next 48 hours, Greig was buried deep in texts from friends, family and teammates who were wondering what he was thinking and his thoughts on Rielly’s over-the-top actions.

Rielly paid a huge price for trying to take Greig’s head off and was handed a warranted five-game suspension from the NHL’s department of player safety Tuesday night after a lengthy hearing with senior VP George Parros earlier in the day.

Greig isn’t the type of guy who expected to be in the limelight and he’s not used to what has happened.

“Definitely pretty different, a lot of buddies, a lot of texts, a lot of phone calls,” Greig said. “It’s been interesting.”

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It has been interesting, to say the least.

Greig opted to stay as far away from the debate as he could. Selected No. 28 overall by Ottawa in the 2020 NHL draft, he quietly has established himself as a full-time player with this club and he has to be considered part of the core in the future for this franchise.

If you think you don’t hear from him much, you’re not alone. He’s a quiet guy with his teammates.

“He’s the same way,” alternate captain Thomas Chabot said. “He’s the kind of guy that will text you and say, ‘What’s up?’ and then get back to you and he’ll say nothing, just leave the conversation. But, you know what, everybody enjoys him in the room and he’s a great guy.

“Like you said, he’s a man of few words, but he’s a great player for us and a great player on the ice.”

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Greig has become a bit of cult hero in these parts. He was cheered loudly when he touched the puck for the first time in the first period of the win over the Jackets and the crowd was even more enthusiastic when he notched his ninth of the season to give the club a 4-1 lead in the third.

“It felt pretty good,” Greig said. “It was pretty cool that the fans were behind me.”

If nothing else, this incident has helped reignite what has become a somewhat-stagnant Battle of Ontario lately. The two teams haven’t met in the playoffs since 2004 and the Senators have gone through a rebuild.

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Former NHLer P.K. Subban, now an ESPN analyst, had the best take on all these events speaking on the Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday.

“If you don’t want guys to celebrate, you don’t want guys to get in your kitchen and stir the pot, well you’re the Toronto Maple Leafs and you’ve got how many guys make $12 million bucks a year?” Subban said. “You’re supposed to be a Stanley Cup-contending team, well then don’t let Ottawa tuck you in when you’re fighting for your playoff lives.

“Ottawa is letting you know it’s the Battle of Ontario and there’s no respect on the ice.”

It’s unfortunate the Senators and Leafs don’t meet again this season because it will be interesting to see the reaction that Greig gets from the unhinged Toronto fans the next time these two teams faceoff.

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

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