- Ridly Greig landed a hidden uppercut on a defenseless Sean Walker in a wild Game 4 scrum
- The shot came after Tyler Kleven knocked Alexander Nikishin out of the game on a massive hit
- Read below for the video, the analyst reaction, and how Walker tried to settle it
Game 4 in Ottawa was a powder keg, and Ridly Greig dropped a sucker punch on Sean Walker that lit the fuse on the loudest moment of the night.
In the second period, the Senators forward hung on the edge of a center-ice scrum, glanced over to check for an official, then wound up and landed an uppercut on Walker while the Hurricanes defenseman was tied up with Warren Foegele. Walker had nowhere to go. He was bent over and held by Foegele when Greig caught him flush.
Sportsnet’s clip of the chaos has been making the rounds:
The fuse for all of it was Tyler Kleven, who knocked Hurricanes rookie Alexander Nikishin out of the game with a massive shoulder along the boards earlier in the period. Nikishin needed help off the ice.
The benches saw red after that, and the rest of the period turned into one long fight card.
Greig somehow stayed out of the box on the punch. The officials handed roughing minors to two other players in the scrum and missed him completely. Walker apparently noticed. A few minutes later, he ran Greig from behind into the boards and took a two-minute boarding minor for it.
The reaction online was loud. Mark Lazerus said he had never seen a more cowardly punch:
TNT analyst Paul Bissonnette went there too. He said on the broadcast that the shot was a five-gamer and added on X that Greig “should be gone” for the punch. Anson Carter pegged the punishment as a $5,000 fine.
The Hurricanes finished the job in the third. Logan Stankoven scored the go-ahead on the power play, Sebastian Aho added two empty-netters, and Carolina took the game 4-2 to complete the sweep.
Here is the full Game 4 video recap:
Player Safety will have a call to make on Greig in the morning.
