Rielly hopes restart will be a reset for team
Morgan Rielly is relieved to be returning to the ice.
But there’s also a sense of urgency for the Maple Leafs defenceman and his teammates, who know they need to improve on their play before the NHL was shut down three months ago. The Leafs started small group workouts this week.
“We’re very motivated,” Rielly said Thursday. “We have a goal in mind and, after training camp gets going, we want to be as prepared as possible … we can come back and prove people wrong. Going into this break, we didn’t feel good about where we were. So (we can) take this opportunity to change that narrative.”
The Leafs had a 36-25-9 record when play was paused, third in the Atlantic and tied for seventh in the East. But they lost three of their last four games and went 8-8-2 after Feb. 2. Overall, they never played with the consistency they wanted.
They will need to find that consistency when the league resumes with a play-in round to the Stanley Cup playoffs. Toronto will face Columbus in a best-of-five series.
But that is still at least a month and a half away. The NHL is in the second phase of its return, with players able to train in small groups. The league hopes to open training camps July 10, assuming acceptable health and safety conditions and an agreement between the league and the players on a date for the resumption of games. That is expected to be in late July or early August.
Rielly said the arrival of the second phase this week, and the promise of the third phase in less than a month, has players focused on the return.
“It’s what we’ve been waiting for,” he said, “and if you ask players what the hardest part was, it’s the uncertainty. For me, it was when to make travel plans to come back to Toronto (from Vancouver). I wanted to be here, with my teammates and preparing for the playoffs.
“Now it’s a matter of preparing for July 10 … hopefully everything will get rolling soon.”
When the games do start up, the Blue Jackets will be waiting. Columbus was even with Toronto in the standings before the lockdown; both teams had 81points in 70 games. The Jackets are a hard-checking team that likes to pressure opponents in their own zone.
“They’re a good team and they play hard, they play a certain style and they’re well coached (by John Tortorella),” Rielly said. “Every team knows what’s at stake and they don’t want to be gone (after the play-in round). There’s a challenge for us there, we’ll do our homework and, when the time comes, we’ll be ready.”
Toronto is one of several cities being considered as one of two hubs for the remaining games. But the chance to play at home presents only a small advantage, Rielly said.
“There might be a small advantage (playing in Toronto) because of the rink. If we host, all the players will be in hotels, so rules apply to us like they do to all teams. So, no advantage based on geography. It’s hard to say, it will be the way it is, and no huge advantage being the host team or not.”