Ottawa Senators center Dylan Cozens went to finish a check on AJ Greer and caught the Anaheim Ducks forward high, with just over nine minutes left in the third period at Honda Center on Sunday night.
AJ Greer stayed down on the ice, motionless, for several seconds while the play was whistled dead. Then he got up under his own power, spotted Cozens and made a beeline for him, looking to make the 25-year-old answer for the shot.
Officials reviewed the play and came back with a five-minute major for interference, served by Stephen Halliday, plus a game misconduct that ended Cozens’ night. He entered the game with 4 goals and 10 points in 15 games.
The major left Ottawa killing a five-minute penalty, and the Ducks‘ power play, which finished 4-for-5, kept the game out of reach. Roger McQueen’s snap shot from the left dot made it 6-3 at 15:19 of the third. Hits to the head draw an automatic review from the NHL’s Department of Player Safety, and no further discipline had been announced yet.
The hit landed in the middle of an Ottawa collapse. The Senators led 3-0 after the first period on goals from Philip Tomasino, Claude Giroux and Michael Amadio, then gave up six unanswered, four of them on the power play, as Cutter Gauthier recorded his second career hat trick with two goals 36 seconds apart early in the third. It was only Anaheim’s second win in nine games.
Fans react to AJ Greer’s Undertaker-like move after hit by Dylan Cozens
Fans reacted to the sequence almost as quickly as AJ Greer got to his feet, and video of it circulated on X into Monday. The sight of a player motionless on the ice one moment and charging at the man who hit him the next drew comparisons to The Undertaker’s signature sit-up.
Reaction split between those who read it as a spark and those who found the delay theatrical, with some questioning how long AJ Greer stayed down and others pointing to the head contact and the major as proof the hit was as bad as it looked.
Edited by Srihari Anand
