Morgan Rielly offered a private hearing, which allowed a 5+ game suspension for the Ridley Greig incident.

The Leafs defenseman was offered a personal hearing after Saturday night's Ridley Greig incident, after the league's disciplinary office talked about an internal debate over Morgan Rielly's in-person and wiretapping.

Rielly's personal hearing will be held Tuesday afternoon at the NHL's New York office.

— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) February 11, 2024

A private hearing opens up the possibility of a similar penalty to David Perron's six players (i.e. over five games) for a check against Artem Zub at the start of the season.

Perron had a clean record in extra discipline (similar to Rielly) and, to his dismay, sat out six:

Perron: “Of course, I promoted the guy a bit. I understand that there is a certain order to be observed here. I think it seemed too much for the comparison, the history, my career – it's really a lot.

Here are a few key differences between Rielly's and Perron's stories. Perron made a mistake and blinded an innocent bystander, while Rielly went after an opponent who had deliberately provoked the opponent and saw Rielly approaching. It really shouldn't result in a severe punishment.

The Leafs have to respond and are justified in responding at this point; At any level of hockey, rubbing an empty net in the other team's face at the end of a game creates a reaction. If we could do that, Rielly would jump and punch Greig instead of picking up the baton, which always gets him into the DoPS crosshairs.

12+ hours of non-stop debate about it in the media has convinced us of this outcome. It has a similar feel to the Matthews-Dahlin story; While we can get comparable data with zero fines or $5K fines (two such examples below), the Leafs are working on a fishing ground and the types of these incidents will increase significantly.

How does the league handle these incidents when there are nationally televised panels on them after the game, instant speculation among the media about the length of the suspension, and days of continuous debate about the incident?

In the meantime, the Leafs will have to move forward without #1D, who will eat up more minutes on the blue line than ever before. The playoff picture is tight and there's little margin for error, so no matter what combination of Conor Timmins, William Lagesson and Mark Giordano play in the coming games without Rielly, the Leafs will be forced to rally around their co-captain. team and really come together here.