Rielly’s magic brings happiness to Leaf land

Nifty goal helps Toronto end its miserable streak

• Cody Franson was sitting in his the dressing room stall when he saw the mob of reporters approaching.

“Do you want to talk to me or the superstar,” he playfully asked, motioning to the person sitting next to him.

The superstar in question was Morgan Rielly. And yes, he was whom everyone wanted to talk to, mostly because he scored what goaltender James Reimer had dubbed “the goal of the year” in a 5-1 win against the Edmonton Oilers.

The goal snapped an 11-game winless streak for the Leafs — they had picked up one point in overtime during that span — but it did not change much in terms of the big picture. The team is still miles away from a potential playoff spot. The season, essentially, is pretty much over.

And yet, Rielly’s goal produced something to build on during these remaining 29 games. Going forward, he is the one undisputed untouchable on this roster that will likely be broken up between now and next month’s trade deadline and beyond. As Franson said, the 20-year-old is a superstar, albeit a developing one.

The responsibility of the Leafs is to ensure that he gets there.

Part of that is why management decided to fire Randy Carlyle as the head coach and replace him with Peter Horachek. In addition, Steve Staios was promoted from the a development role because president Brendan Shanahan “wanted more teaching in the second half.”

Rielly, who scored his fifth goal of the season on Saturday night, said he has already noticed a change. Under Carlyle, his ice time was in the midteens. Since Horachek took over, he’s been well over 20 minutes per game and keeps setting new career highs for playing time.

“Just playing with a bit more freedom,” said the second-year defenceman, who scored for the first time since Dec. 13. “I think he has some trust in me that if I have a chance to make a play, I’ll probably make it. And if I don’t, I’ll have time to recover. That’s just helped me a lot, it’s given me a lot more confidence.

“Each year you want to get better. As a pro athlete, you’re always trying to improve. You have certain points that you want to hit over the course of your career. That just comes over time. You have to keep working at it and keep healthy. That’s all it is.”

While Rielly has still not reached the level of a toppairing defenceman, he is playing the kind of hockey that led him to being selected fifth overall in the 2012 draft. That was apparent on the highlight-reel goal he scored on Saturday.

With the Leafs leading 2-0 in the second period, Rielly blocked a shot in the defensive zone and then carried the puck the length of the ice. In the process, he deked around almost every Edmonton player, before turning defenceman Andrew Ference inside out with a beautiful toe-drag and finished the play by roofing a shot over goaltender Viktor Fasth.

“When he gets a full speed coming up the ice and he’s dipsy-doodling, he’s a dangerous player,” Leafs forward Peter Holland said.

“They just kind of took the lane away so I thought I’d try to make a move,” said Rielly, who kept telling reporters that he did not want to talk about his goal. “And it just happened to work out … I don’t know who it was — I think it was [David] Booth — who was open so maybe I should have passed it.

“I got lucky and it’s just a good feeling.”