Morgan Rielly made waves on Saturday in the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators when he hit Ridly Grieg with a vicious cross-check after he scored a goal with a slapshot on an empty net. Some fans believed that Rielly was right to deliver a punishing hit on Grieg given that the game was out of hand, while others think he went too far.
The NHL sided with the latter group, as Rielly was handed a five-game suspension for his hit on Grieg. Unsurprisingly, Rielly did not agree with the league's decision there, and he quickly decided to appeal their decision in an effort to reduce the amount of games he will be suspended for because of this hit.
Via Chris Johnston:
“Morgan Rielly will be filing an appeal to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on his five-game suspension.”
Will Morgan Rielly's suspension be reduced?
Rielly almost certainly isn't going to have his suspension reduced entirely, but he could shave a game or two off of it if his appeal goes well. However, the NHL wants to promote player safety, and Rielly's hit very clearly was in violation of that. There is a “code” of sorts among players to not run the score up and try to score goals when the game is all but over, but the league likely isn't going to do what they can to defend that rule in favor of Grieg.
Either way, Rielly's appeal is something worth keeping an eye on, especially because his absence would be a big blow for Toronto, regardless of how many games he ends up missing. The likelihood of his appeal getting approved is probably pretty low, but it doesn't hurt to try, and it's certainly a storyline worth paying attention to over the next few days.
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