Leafs bank on Rielly while rookies get comfy
Morgan Rielly is off to a tremendous start to the NHL season buoyed by his performance at the World Cup, where he drew rave reviews from Team North America GM Peter Chiarelli.
And now Maple Leafs fans are anxiously awaiting Saturday night’s home opener, where Deadmau5 will debut a new Leafs-themed song and Rielly, in his fourth season, will be one of four assistant captains on a team with six rookies and a focus on fast-paced but responsible hockey.
One question lingers, though: Why wasn’t Rielly a power-play regular in the opener? The Leafs went with four forwards and one defenceman against Ottawa, with Jake Gardiner and Nikita Zaitsev sharing the blueline work.
“(Rielly) and I have talked, how’s that?” Leafs coach Mike Babcock said on the matter Friday, as the Leafs prepared for what promises to be a memorable opening night.
Rielly is coming off a season in which he factored heavily on the power play, along with Gardiner and Dion Phaneuf. In total power-play time, Gardiner led Leafs defenceman with Phaneuf second and Rielly third.
Rielly, however, led the Leafs in total ice time and was 17th among all NHL defencemen, a respectable showing for a third-year player that factored into an agreement on a sixyear contract extension with a $5million average annual value.
After one game, the Leafs appear to have two clear units with the man advantage: Tyler Bozak with James van Riemsdyk and Mitch Marner; Nazem Kadri and Auston Matthews plus one of Milan Michalek and Leo Komarov. Rielly saw 11 seconds of power-play ice time, while Gardiner and newcomer Zaitsev worked the bulk of it.
Rielly’s situation could be a side effect of the coaching staff giving all the young players an early look on the power play, which ranked secondlast in the NHL last season. It could also be an attempt to ease his heavy overall workload, which includes matchups against the opposing team’s best players.
“We can do a better job, how we clean up our breakouts,” Rielly said of the defensive effort in the season opener against Ottawa, where he led Leafs defenceman in ice time at more than 25 minutes. “We know we can be better.”