TORONTO — That dastardly Ridly Greig — the man Leafs Nation will remember from going full clapper into an empty net last season — needed 26 minutes to reassert himself as public enemy No. 1 in Toronto.
An effective, tiptoe-the-line third liner, Greig was all kinds of noticeable for the Ottawa Senators in Sunday’s opening salvo of the Battle of Ontario 5.0.
In his playoff debut, Greig scored a goal, skated on both special teams, and was one of the few visitors to end up on the plus side of the ledger during a convincing 6-2 Maple Leafs win.
But it was Greig’s sneaky aggressions that have drawn the ire of the Leafs and their fervent fans — but not the hammer of the NHL’s department of player safety.
Greig delivered a nasty cross-check to the head of John Tavares behind the play that was originally given a major penalty but, upon official review, reduced to a minor.
(The league won’t issue any supplementary discipline. “No, I didn’t think they would,” Craig Berube said.)
Greig later accidentally on purpose crashed into goalie Anthony Stolarz, causing a collective gasp from the Toronto fanbase.
Tavares and Stolarz are not only critical figures to keep healthy for a deep run, they’re also beloved in the Leafs’ room.
“It’s definitely annoying. I think we’re going to play hard on him and not make it easy for him the rest of the way,” said Matthew Knies, who believes Greig should have received a harsher punishment for sticking Tavares high.
“I thought he got him pretty good in the head. You got to trust that (the refs) made the right decision. But, yeah, I think I saw it a little bit differently.”
Adhering to the keep-calm-and-carry-on messaging from their head coach, the Maple Leafs are, for the most part, taking the high road publicly.
Even Stolarz himself gave Chris Kreider Greig a pass for crashing his crease post-game.
“I’m fine. He just kind of came in and caught me in a little awkward spot. My knee kinda hit the post there,” Stolarz said. “He blew a tire, so it is what it is. And I feel fine.”
Morgan Rielly served a five-game suspension in February 2024 for cross-checking Greig in the head after the most memorable empty-net goal in recent history. He, too, is downplaying Sunday’s extracurriculars.
“Ultimately, I thought the composure was all right,” Rielly said. “There’s nothing to it. Our group has to keep our focus on playing our brand of hockey.”
That brand is to check hard between whistles and avoid the nonsense afterward. To out-discipline their inexperienced opponent and make the eager Sens pay with a frightening power-play that converted thrice on quick strikes in Game 1.
“We did a good job of staying disciplined,” said captain Auston Matthews. “It’s always going to be like that in the playoffs. There’s always guys on both teams that like to play that role.
“It’s just making sure we’re sticking up for each other.”
Berube says the Leafs are in regular contact with the series’ supervising official, who is monitoring all calls and non-calls. An old-school knuckler who racked up 3,149 penalty minutes in the regular season, plus another 211 in 89 playoff appearances, Berube could only chuckle when asked how difficult it is to not retaliate on an expert agitator like Greig.
“Well, I didn’t do a very good job of it,” Berube smiles. “It can be difficult, for sure. I mean, it’s human nature. But we did a good job of it last night, for the most part.
“Things break out at the end of the game and stuff like that, but you just got to keep preaching it. And they got to understand how important it is. We got to play hard between the whistles. We got to keep being physical. We got to make it difficult for them as best we can. And that’s got to be our mentality here — to stay composed.”
Berube lived it. He understands the temptation to exact revenge.
“I get it,” the coach said. “But in the end, you’re not going to really help the team. Now, there’s always situations that arise, and we’ll deal with them as we go along.”
One-Timers: Designated starter Anthony Stolarz, who is not used to playing every other day, skipped Monday’s practice in favour of rest. … Berube isn’t changing a winning lineup, but he is making one tweak. Max Domi, who made a couple of hope plays that led to turnovers, will centre the third line. Pontus Holmberg has been promoted to forecheck on the Leafs’ second line. “Max is good about playing whatever,” Berube said. “It’s an easy switch for him.” … Ottawa coach Travis Green is considering lineup changes for Tuesday, but won’t tip his hand. The Senators held a team meeting instead of hitting the ice on Monday.
Maple Leafs projected Game 2 lineup vs. Ottawa Senators:
Knies – Matthews – Marner
Holmberg – Tavares – Nylander
McMann – Domi – Robertson
Lorentz – Laughton – Järnkrok
Rielly – Carlo
McCabe – Tanev
Ekman-Larsson – Benoit
Stolarz starts
Woll
