Leafs' Rielly suspended 5 games for cross-check

Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly has been suspended five games by the NHL Department of Player Safety for a cross-check to the head of Ottawa Senators forward Ridly Greig on Saturday night.

Rielly hit Greig with his stick after the Senators rookie scored an empty-net goal on a slap shot from close distance with 5.1 seconds remaining.

“In short, this is not a hockey play. This is an intentional, forceful strike to an opponent’s head, using a stick as a weapon to exact retribution on an opponent well after a goal is scored,” NHL Player Safety said in its ruling on Tuesday.

Rielly, 29, had no on-ice disciplinary history in his 11-year professional career. Greig wasn’t injured on the play.

The hearing was scheduled to be in person at the NHL’s New York City offices on Tuesday but a snowstorm forced the parties to meet remotely.

An in-person hearing gives the Department of Player Safety the option of suspending a player for six or more games, but Rielly only received a five-game ban. The length of the ban also means that only NHL commissioner Gary Bettman will hear the appeal should Rielly choose to fight it.

Under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement and, based on his average annual salary, Rielly will forfeit $195,312.50. The money goes to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

The incident happened after Greig’s empty-net goal — with untypical emphasis for the NHL — made it 5-3. Instead of sliding the puck in for the score, Greig blasted a slap shot from between the circles to the delight of the home fans, but not the Maple Leafs.

As Greig glided along the boards in celebration, he noticed Rielly skating towards him “with purpose and at some distances,” according to the Department of Player Safety ruling. Rielly then raised his stick high with both hands and intentionally hit Greig in the head “with substantial force.”

Rielly earned a major penalty for cross-checking and a game misconduct.

After the game, the Maple Leafs stood by Rielly’s actions, with coach Sheldon Keefe calling them “appropriate.” Captain John Tavares said his teammates will “stand our ground when necessary.”

Star center Auston Matthews said Rielly wasn’t a “malicious player” and that Greig’s provocative empty-netter deserved a response.

“Somebody was going to do it, especially after a play like that,” Matthews said. “I just don’t think it’s really necessary to go down there and ‘hardest shot competition’ into the net.”

Greig’s teammates acknowledged the Ottawa rookie may have broken an unspoken rule with his slap shot, but they felt Rielly’s response was too harsh.

“The emotions sometimes will get to you,” veteran forward Claude Giroux said. “I obviously don’t like to see him getting in the face there, but there’s not much really to say. Sometimes that kind of stuff happens.”

The incident sparked a leaguewide debate about Greig’s sportsmanship, the appropriateness of Reilly’s response and whether the Maple Leafs defenseman was being singled out by NHL Player Safety because he plays for one of the league’s most scrutinized teams.

The situation in which the incident occurred — after an empty-net goal, with around five seconds remaining in the game — was a significant factor in the NHL’s decision to suspend Rielly.

There have been other instances of cross-checks to opponents’ head that resulted in smaller suspensions because they happened during the course of play. Last season, Los Angeles Kings forward Blake Lizotte was suspended for one game for cross-checking Winnipeg Jets defenseman Josh Morrissey in the head after the two got physical during play. This season, Calgary Flames forward Andrew Mangiapane earned a one-game suspension for cross-checking Seattle’s Jared McCann in the neck while he was flat on the ice.

“This was not the case of two players mutually jousting where both players could reasonably expect escalating contact,” NHL Player Safety said. “This is also not an inadvertent or accidental use of the stick for hockey purposes.”

A comparable incident was that of David Perron‘s crosscheck on Ottawa defenseman Artem Zub, which resulted in a six-game suspension that the Detroit Red Wings forward has since appealed. Like with Rielly, the NHL viewed Perron’s cross-check as a retaliatory move after the Senators’ Mathieu Joseph and Parker Kelly both hit Detroit’s Dylan Larkin, leaving the Red Wings’ captain unconscious on the ice. Like Greig, Zub wasn’t injured.

Perron actually offered the same counter-argument in his argument that Rielly did: That his stick made contact with the body before striking the head of his opponent.

NHL Player Safety, however, determined Rielly’s incident “was not a case in which a stick is raised to an excusable level and is significantly deflected up to the head area.”

The NHL said Rielly had ample time not to raise his stick or to aim his cross-check to Greig’s body instead.

The Maple Leafs hold the Eastern Conference’s top wild card spot after Tuesday’s 4-1 win over St. Louis. Rielly is their top defenseman in points (43) and minutes played (24:21).