Ridly Greig is now a pesky Sen for Maple Leafs fans. That won’t change

OTTAWA — Ridly Greig talks softly but carries a big stick. 

Sometimes, he gets hit with a big stick. 

And so it was that we gathered around the locker stall of the 21-year-old Senators forward on Tuesday night to get his take on the aftermath of the Greig shot heard ’round the hockey world on Saturday night: The slapshot into an empty net that so enraged Morgan Rielly of the Toronto Maple Leafs that he attacked Greig with a high-stick to the head, resulting in a five-game suspension by the NHL Department of Player Safety on Tuesday afternoon.

It’s safe to say Greig hasn’t spent a three-day spell quite like this one. 

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

Greig was speaking after the Senators hung on to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 6-3 in a somewhat sloppy game played with just five Ottawa defenceman, as Artem Zub was unable to start due to injury. Greig scored a goal and took a roughing penalty after responding to a knee-on-knee hit by Jackets captain Boone Jenner when Greig was nowhere near the puck. 

After a few polite questions about the fourth straight Senators victory, talk turned to his empty-net goal like no other. 

Greig said he has tried to stay offline as much as possible to stay out of the fray. 

“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. 

What seemed to matter was the support from the crowd of 15,203. 

Before the game, enterprising Senators staff aired a scoreboard replay of Greig scoring the empty-net goal against Toronto. Then showed it again. And again. 

Cheers went up from the crowd as the scene was replayed. 

They saluted No. 71 again when he touched the puck for the first time, and a little harder when Greig scored his ninth goal of the season in the second period, a redirection to the top of the net off a shot by Vladimir Tarasenko. 

Meet Ridly Greig. Instant legend. 

In Ottawa, it pays lasting dividends to rub a little salt in a Maple Leaf wound, especially in front of a crowd that might have tipped 60/40 or more in favour of Toronto fans in the house. 

Tuesday versus Columbus was more like business as usual — with the home crowd solidly behind its team, and Greig, who has been under fire since his fiery shot. 

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

While Greig had no comment on the five-gamer handed to Rielly, he admitted he was caught “a little bit” off guard by the attack he absorbed. 

“I don’t think you’re ever expecting a guy to cross-check you in the face – also, I’m not sure he meant to do that,” Greig said, likely referring to the stick first hitting Greig high on the body before riding up and into the face. 

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What motivated him to blast that puck into the open net?

“Just a lot of adrenaline, the heat of the moment, the heat of the game,” Greig said. “It was an emotional game. I just got a breakaway and thought I’d bury it.”

Boy, did he bury it. Into our memory banks. 

While Greig said that it’s not fun to see a majority of Leafs fans in the building, “I don’t know if that factored in or not.”

About two and half minutes after the media scrum started, it was over, with Greig being asked how it felt to be the biggest off-ice story in hockey these past few days. The debate ensues about empty net goals and slap shots.  

“I didn’t think it would get this far, but I guess that is the media side of things,” Greig said. 

The final 10 seconds of Saturday’s game have sent both fan bases into a frothing, feeding frenzy. Should we be glad we didn’t have social media when Daniel Alfredsson hit Darcy Tucker or Tie Domi got hit into the boards by Ricard Persson – in games that actually mattered? 

Vitriol is evident from both sides over Ridly/Rielly, but more from the Leafs camp with the Rielly suspension hovering, and has spilled over into hateful messages that should make us all think twice about our time on our phone apps.

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Greig’s performance on the ice speaks volumes about his edgy play that his dialogue cannot. 

Someone in our illustrious media group suggested a Greig response to a question averages about 11 words. 

To which I say: take the under on that bet. 

Greig is a man of few words and fewer expressions. 

If the dictionary had pictures, a photo of Greig would be next to the word laconic. 

An enigma even to his teammates. 

“He’s the kind of guy that will text you, ‘what’s up?’ and then get back to you and say nothing, leave the conversation at that,” says defenceman Thomas Chabot. “But you know what, everybody enjoys him in the room. He’s a great guy, like you said, a man of few words, but a great player for us.”

Greig’s cover is blown now. He won’t be sneaking up on anyone. 

If Maple Leafs fans think they dislike Greig at the moment, give it a few years. 

The man is going to be a thorn in blue-and-white sides for a long time to come, in games that will be in the post-season, not Game 48 of the regular season. 

Captain Brady Tkachuk’s hat trick Tuesday, not long after the Rielly suspension was announced, had everyone in the building thinking of bigger games down the road with this team. 

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