It’s the life of Rielly for NHL debut of team’s top draft.
Young defenceman Rielly right at home as team improves to 3-0 with tough victory over Ottawa
Now playing: I Was a Teenage Maple Leaf Defenceman. Traditionally, this would be a horror movie — the kid who opens the creaky door at the top of the NHL staircase while audiences are screaming at management DON’T DO IT! The Leaf landscape is littered with bodies of baby-faced naïfs, most tragically greenhorn rearguards rushed into the big team’s lineup, only to be buzz-sawed in the first reel or axed in the head before the closing credits.
Morgan Rielly may be the exception, a 19-year-old who not only survives the slasher gore but gets the pretty girl at the end. Or, in this kid’s case, a Labrador called Maggie, the pet pooch left behind in Vancouver and kennelled Saturday morning by Rielly’s parents as they rushed to make a Toronto flight, arriving in time to witness their son’s NHL debut in the Leafs’ Air Canada Centre curtainraiser against Ottawa, and, golly, a shoot- out 5-4 win at that.
Repeat: A shootout win. There were zero (0) of those last season, which was actually this year, in the lockout-truncated schedule.
If Rielly sticks, Maggie gets a ticket to the centre of the universe too, where the Leafs are now savouring their 3-0 start out of the chute.
He is a stud, the highest-drafted Maple Leaf in 23 years, which speaks as much to Rielly’s innate talent as to the franchise’s ruinous habit of trading away draft picks.
First time out, though, he got a bit bloodied, drawn into the dark side of turnovers and giveaways by his D-duo partner Cody Franson while the eyepopping heroics were served up by freeagent acquisition Mason Raymond: a goal to start things (his second as a Leaf), two assists and (gotta say) a helluva cheesy shootout spinarama trick that earned a tick in the scoring column and went down as da winnah! on the game.
“Things are going well so far,” Raymond understated.
As it turned out, it was The Nightmare on Bay Street for Toronto starter James Reimer instead, fright night between the pipes — ah yes, there’s the puck-handling conniption we all remember so well — yanked halfway through the second, by which point the Senators had pumped a rubber quartet past him, No. 3 and No. 4 only 15 seconds apart, Toronto trailing by a pair. Coach Randy Carlyle, no slouch with the hook, propelled Jonathan Bernier over the boards for his ad lib initiation as Leafgoalie@home. He gave up nothing in regulation and was the eventual SO victor.
A bit tough to watch for the hoisted Reimer? “I’m not going to sit on the bench and hope my teammate plays bad,” the stopper-interruptus said afterwards to a TV reporter who’d asked a very dumb question. “That’s not your mindset. I know what kind of team we have in here and I knew we were going to come back. I was disappointed getting pulled because I have a good feeling about this group and I know we can come back. I kind of figured we would.”
Three Leaf scrubeenies launched their NHL careers in this up-down-sidewaystied-OT-shootout encounter: Rielly, Spencer Abbott and Jamie Devane. But “Morgs” — as he’s known in the dressing room, diminutive further evidence of his comer status — is the most beguiling, a training camp hotshot who’s earned the guarded trust of the coaching staff, at least temporarily, including a bench boss who well remembers the heebie-jeebies of crashing into the league as a Leaf, which he did 37 autumns ago. “It’s like you were seen but not heard. Shut up
Carlyle stuck with Rielly all evening, denying him no usual shifts and sending him out on the power play early in the second
and do what you’re told.”
It was hardly Rielly’s fault that he went into the dressing room after 40 minutes a minus-3 on the scoresheet. “You know, on paper it’s probably not the greatest game I’ve ever played but I’m pretty happy with how it went. I felt like I improved as I kept playing.”
Hours earlier, he’d admitted having a fantasy about how his first NHL game would unfold, though he wouldn’t share. “I don’t want to jinx it.”
Rielly was partnered with Franson, arguably the best defenceman in Toronto’s first three games. Unforeseen by everybody was that it would be Franson dragging Reilly down in their initial outing, two giveaways in a row equalling two goals for the Senators. So Reilly was really a standby casualty, more often bailing out his older half, and unscathed by his own worst-moment turnover in the third, just before just before James van Riemsdyk tied things 4-4.
It should be noted that Carlyle stuck with Rielly all evening, denying him no regular shifts and sending him out on the power play early in the second, plusminus statistics be damned.
“It was pretty heated,” Rielly said of the game, adding elliptically: “To have the game be as heated as it was, that was pretty cool.”
Franson had spoken highly of his ten- derfoot D-mate earlier in the day, struck by Rielly’s apparent composure. “What’s impressive about him is that he feels totally normal. He walks around here totally confident. He’s just having a lot of fun with it.”
It couldn’t possibly have been any more nerve-wracking for the sturdy six-footer with the barely there chin stubble — a soft blond bristle — and pale blue eyes that dilated with excitement when his inclusion on the manifest was confirmed. “Toronto Maple Leaf home opener against Ottawa. That’s a good place to start.”
A first-round draft pick, fifth overall just a year ago, Rielly had been planted in the pressbox for Toronto’s first two games. The youngster’s opening arrived with a knee injury to Mark Fraser, who was placed on injured reserve Friday.
The Leafs get to keep Rielly around for a maximum of nine games, lineup dressed, without triggering the first year of his entry-level contract. Nine games and back to the Moose Jaw Warriors in the WHL — or, alternatively, stay with the parent club, which he might very well merit.
The advice had come fast and furious and Rielly was trying to absorb it all. “Just play your game, play with confidence. That’s been a pretty constant theme. I’m going to try to concentrate on the game and not be too worried about everything else that’s going on, with it being the home opener.”
By the time this sucker went into overtime, three hours after the openingnight festivities got off to a pipe-swirling start, Rielly probably had forgotten all about the game’s special aspects. And Coach Carlyle had him out on the first OT shift. In that extra frame, Rielly very nearly won it for Toronto. For a splitsecond, it was almost a dream come true, as fantasized, with Rielly believing he would bury the puck behind Craig Anderson. “I did. I did. I thought I had him. I think I just hit his pants there in front.”
This teen, methinks, isn’t going west, young man. And Maggie should be getting on a jet plane soon.