Quoting: Boltsradynasty
Explain how that is anything close to an acceptable hockey play there is less than zero chance you can. It was a complete sc**bag move .
If his feelings are so hurt drop the gloves be a man about it not a complete coward .
First of all this play happens so often at this point that to imply it isn't part of the game is just absurd.
Second a big reason these types of plays happen more often is because young guys like Grieg didn't deal with this in minor hockey like we did when I was younger so he had no clue how to defend himself.
Third if you watch in slow motion, Rielly is trying to go for the ribs/shoulder. If you don't believe this watch it in 0.5x speed or watch Martin Biron's breakdown on TSN. Grieg does the stupidest thing you can which is that he tries to put out his arm and catch Rielly's stick. This causes his stick to go from below shoulder height to riding up his shoulder an into his face. If anything the only reason this hits Grieg's face is because Grieg directs the stick that way.
All this being said, the league is stupid. Like the Hughes/Hathaway situation the league will punish the veteran because the young kid didn't know how to defend themselves. As Torts said, its a bad precedent. Your essentially teaching kids like Hughes that they can letup before the whistle and if they get hit the other guy gets a penalty and so he'll keep doing it to draw calls until one day he doesn't get back up. Grieg will keep being an idiot and taking slapshot into empty nets then letting guys hammer him to get major penalties and get under their skin and this will work until the day Grieg gets a concussion and his career ends.
I think the reason this is so polarizing is because its really a generational gap. All the former players came out in favour of it. Bieksa even said he'd do it in Rielly's shoes on national TV. All the journalists, younger fans, etc. are outraged. Problem is that the league needs to sort this because the thing the young people don't seem to understand is that you can complain all you want but at the end of the day, Rielly will serve his suspension and come back and do the same think in the same situation. And next time the kid might not stand up.