Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly. Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports

Maple Leafs defenseman suspended for post-goal cheap shot

By Adam Gretz | Last updated 2/13/24

Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly has been suspended five games by the NHL for a late cheap-shot on Ottawa's Ridly Greig that sparked an on-ice brawl over the weekend.

The incident happened at the end of Ottawa's 5-3 win on Saturday when Ridley took a slap shot at Toronto's empty-net to put the game away. That was seen as a violation of NHL's "code" of "unwritten rules" and resulted in Rielly cross-checking him in the head. A brawl immediately broke out.

Here is a look at the play.

Rielly was offered an in-person hearing by the NHL's Department of Player Safety which gave the league the freedom to suspend him for more than five games. He will lose more than $195K in salary as a result of the suspension.

The five-game punishment is one that will not make anybody happy.

The Maple Leafs and old school hockey fans and players that love vigilante, frontier justice are going to be mad that Rielly got anything. There is a mindset that Greig should have known better than to take a slap shot like that and he should have expected a response.

Ottawa fans and the segment of hockey fans that don't like seeing cheap shots are going to view it as a slap on the wrist for a blatant cheap shot that had nothing to do with the game and happened after the play was over.

The bottom line is that Grieg didn't do anything wrong. He scored a goal in an emphatic way at the end of a tough rivalry game. He didn't celebrate, he didn't point at the Maple Leafs bench and he didn't do anything to taunt them.

If the Maple Leafs didn't like how he scored the goal they should have done more to win the game and prevent it from happening.

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