Rielly-Barrie pairing still a work in progress

Neither Morgan Rielly nor Tyson Barrie wants to mess this up.

Toronto Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe is giving the offensively talented pair of defencemen the opportunity to demonstrate what they can do together, and each wants to ensure Keefe has made a prudent decision.

Doubters might say the two won’t have the proper defensive awareness to make it work.

Two games in, Barrie and Rielly are confident they can be sharp at each end of the ice.

“We both have played a lot of games, we’re both responsible enough and veteran enough to know what’s too much (as far as taking risks),” Barrie said. “If we see we’re getting kind of crazy and jumping in too much, then we’ll reel it back. I think once we get rolling we can we can definitely control the play and make it a nightmare for other teams.”

That wasn’t the way Rielly necessarily put it after the Leafs beat the St. Louis Blues 5-2 on Saturday to successfully start a fourgame trip that also has stops in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, but he might have agreed.

“Our first two games together we have had periods of time where it has been good and at the same time, there has been probably more D -zone time than we would like,” Rielly said. “We were kind of laughing afterward (in St. Louis) because in the third we felt like we broke out pretty good and made some plays.

“It’s a work in progress, but we both want to make it work. We both want the puck and we both want to give it to someone who’s going to do something with it.”

Former coach Mike Babcock had no appetite for using Rielly and Barrie as a pair before he was relieved by Keefe on Nov. 20.

Keefe knows what he wants from the duo, and has confidence it will make the Leafs better in the long run.

“They have abilities to produce offensively and they’ve shown that and done that over their careers. We also want to make sure that the defensive side of it is there. We’re going to need that complete game from them.”

It helps that Rielly and Barrie have come to know each other quite well during past off-seasons in B.C., well before the trade with Colorado that brought Barrie to Toronto in July.

OUT WEST

Rielly, naturally, was looking forward to the Leafs’ lone visit of 2019-20 to his hometown.

“It’s just good to rest the body, and try to take advantage of that,” said Rielly, who is averaging a career-high 24 minutes and 42 seconds of ice time a game. “I think I need that. It will be nice to be back on the West Coast with the good ocean air.”

The Leafs had Sunday off in Vancouver after flying west immediately following the game in St. Louis. The club is scheduled to practise on Monday. tkoshan@postmedia.com