Morgan Rielly reacts to losing his spot on the Leafs' top PP unit
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During yesterday's training camp session, many Leaf fans were shocked when they saw that John Klingberg had replaced Morgan Rielly on the first powerplay unit. Rielly had been a staple on the top unit for years, but his reluctance to shoot from the point could have been a major reason why the Leafs and new Assistant Coach Guy Boucher made the change.
Adding Klingberg to the top unit gives the Leafs another shooting threat, which the opposition will have to respect, rather than just cheating a bit on defense to cover the Leafs' top shooters, since Rielly is more of a puck distributor than anything else.
Following practice on Sunday, Rielly was asked about the demotion. He had a very surprising take on the situation. He was actually cool with it.
"To add him to a group that already has those forwards is a unique opportunity & it's a great chance for our team to improve off of what we did last year & for him to make a huge impact." - Rielly on Klingberg stepping into the PP1 quarterback role
Rielly has always been known as the guy that just wants what's best for the team and has never cared about his personal stats. That is evident in how Mitch Marner described Rielly when he was asked about the change.
"Morgan's probably one of the best people in the world just human-quality wise. I don't think anything gets him down. He wants this team to win as bad as anyone. This happened before & nothing changed about his attitude. We're very lucky to have a guy like that." - Marner on Rielly moving down to PP2
Things can very quickly revert back depending on the success of each unit, so we shouldn't see this as ironclad by any means. It is also still the first week of camp and the Leafs will likely try a variety of looks to see what works - though we shouldn't be surprised to see Klingberg open the season on PP1 and stay there for some time as he builds chemistry with Tavares, Marner, Matthews and Nylander.
| POLL | ||
SEPTEMBRE 24 | 314 ANSWERS Morgan Rielly reacts to losing his spot on the Leafs' top PP unit Are you surprised by Rielly's reaction to being shifted down to the 2nd PP unit? | ||
| Not surprised at all - Rielly is a beauty | 219 | 69.7 % |
| A bit surprised, yes | 43 | 13.7 % |
| Very surprised | 10 | 3.2 % |
| The 2nd unit is where he belongs anyway | 42 | 13.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
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