It did not take long for the NHL's Department of Player Safety to notify Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly that he would have a hearing for his actions Saturday night against the Ottawa Senators. The DOPS announced yesterday that Rielly would have an in-person hearing, which allows him to be suspended for more than five games.
Following the hearing announcement, the DOPS made a second announcement regarding Rielly and his hearing date. They announced that he would have a hearing Tuesday afternoon at the NHL's head office in New York. Given that the Leafs play Tuesday night, hosting the St. Louis Blues, it is clear that Rielly will be out of the lineup for one game at the very least.
Rielly, who has zero history with the league in terms of supplemental discipline, will likely face a similar suspension to the one Detroit Red Wings forward David Perron received for a similar incident against the Senators earlier in the year. Perron was suspended six games for his actions and he too had no previous history with being suspended.
For Rielly, missing tomorrow's game was already almost a certainty anyway, but it seems like poor planning by the league to have a player wait until the day of his team's next game to have the opportunity to argue his case. The league could have handled this matter a lot more efficiently by simply setting the hearing date to Monday afternoon to ensure that the ordeal was wrapped up before Tuesday. Then again, nobody has ever accused the league of being efficient.
