Ever since I discovered from The Leaf: Blueprint that new acquisition Colin Greening was a Cornell Alumnus, I decided to become a Greening fangirl. It's so nice to discover NCAA athletes in hockey, especially ones that went to my family college! (My father, uncle, and grandma all graduated from Cornell. My grandma graduated in the 1930s with a degree in home economics.)

Here are some fun facts about this former Binghamton/Ottawa Senator.

  • Greening also went to Upper Canada College in 2003-2004 before heading to Cornell.
  • Greening was two-time captain of Cornell's hockey team.
  • He became well known for holding a high GPA (3.95) in economics and management at Cornell while captaining the team.
  • He played four seasons of NCAA hockey at Cornell without missing any games.
  • He won an award for service in 2010, because of his involvment in Big Brothers Big Sisters, Special Olympics, and a few other charities.
  • He organized the college teddy bear toss to raise money for cancer centers in Ithaca.
  • Basically I think this guy is what Babcock means when he says he likes "good people."
  • Greening has an uncle that lives near Edmonton who will come support him when the team plays there.
  • Greening is from Newfoundland, and his family still lives there -- except for when they vacation with Stamkos in Florida.
  • He grew up watching the St. John's Maple Leafs, and admired Nathan Dempsey.
  • He was selected by the Ottawa Senators in the seventh round, 204th overall, of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft.
  • During the lockout, Greening played with the Aalborg Pirates of Denmark's AL-Bank Ligaen.
  • He's happy that he's moving to another Canadian team.
  • He thinks Babcock's system is similar to Paul MacLean's.
  • He did very well against the Oilers on a line with Arcobello and Parenteau, garnering praise from Katya: /

So while my eye-test said Greening is excellent at playing the body, winning board battles and being the muscle that I think Mark Arcobello needs on wing, he also keeps up in the play and shoots the puck, passes, gets in tight to the net, and plays like he knows what's what all over the ice. .... is he, like Parenteau, a guy who can use some of the Babcock combination of clean on-ice system and tough love to find his true level?