The Toronto Maple Leafs are preparing to lose top defenseman Morgan Rielly for a slew of games.
The NHL announced on Sunday that Rielly received an in-person hearing with the Department of Player Safety after the rearguard cross-checked Ridly Greig in the face due to the Ottawa Senators forward’ slap shot, empty-net goal.
Rielly will be eligible to be suspended for six or more games depending on the hearing results. Rielly’s Maple Leafs teammate, Ryan Reaves is ever so familiar with the league’s supplemental discipline process. He gave his two cents on the play after Toronto’s skate on Monday.
“There’s gotta be a message sent,” Reaves said. “Guy takes a clapper into our net, you want to go play patty cake with him? I don’t think a push is a message. I thought it was appropriate. These young kids these days are playing a different brand of hockey than I’m used to. It’s unfortunate that a young kid can get away with something like that and one of our best players is going to get suspended for it.”
Reaves then lamented about the fact that Rielly was even being called in for a hearing. In his opinion, Rielly deserves a fine or a one-game suspension at the most.
“Make hockey violent again, a tattoo I should get,” Reaves said. The 37-year-old winger has had personal, previous run-ins with Player Safety six times in the past, earning three suspensions and three fines.
Reaves has long been a big talker in the media about his perceived ability to stymie actions from opponents that he believes are unsportsmanlike. Just this past fall, Reaves claimed that, due to his presence, no player would likely dare celebrate a goal against the Maple Leafs like Radko Gudas did in last year’s postseason.
Ryan Reaves, who says he’ll be a loud presence in the room, was asked about what he can do on the ice. And asked about preventing incidents like this: “I’d like to see him try it. It would be fun” pic.twitter.com/lE1rtYtYBM
— David Alter (@dalter) September 18, 2023
Gudas famously screamed directly in goaltender Joseph Woll’s face after a Nick Cousins goal sent the Florida Panthers to the Eastern Conference Finals and eliminated the Leafs. Given that Greig’s slap shot into an empty net seemed to be celebratory and Reaves was on the bench watching it go in, it appears he was wrong.
Reaves also once reportedly claimed to a team that he was the solution to their “Tom Wilson problem.” The big winger was acquired by the New York Rangers after Wilson’s Horrifying Act of Violence game, but never ended up fighting Wilson before being dealt out of The Big Apple to the Minnesota Wild last November.
Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe sent Reaves out for the final five seconds of regulation after Rielly was ejected for his actions against the Senators. Those five seconds ticked off the clock without incident and moved Reaves’ total ice time mark in the game to over seven minutes (7:01).
The Maple Leafs brought Reaves in on a three-year, $4.05 million contract this past offseason as part of their efforts to be harder to play against in the NHL playoffs. They did so even though the veteran forward has never won a Stanley Cup and has been suspended as many playoff games (3) as he has scored playoff goals in his 13-year career.
Reaves has just two points (2g) in 25 games with the Maple Leafs this season. He is skating on average just 7:24 of ice time per game and recently complained to the media that he was being kept on injured reserve by the team despite being completely healthy.
The Maple Leafs and Senators do not play again this season so any further retaliation against Greig or any other Ottawa players from someone like Reaves won’t be able to occur until the 2024-25 campaign.
“Hopefully, one day I can be in on an empty net and I can take a clapper into their net,” Reaves said Monday. “Then we’ll see the repercussions of that, right?”
