Morgan Rielly Opens Up About His On-Ice Struggles as Hellish Season Continues
Photo credit: Dan Hamilton - Imagn Images
On pace for his worst statistical season since 2016-17, Morgan Rielly opens up about his on-ice struggles and what he needs to do to help the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The addition of Chris Tanev this summer was supposed to help Morgan Rielly in a variety of ways. However, it seems like the 30-year-old defenseman has lost a step or two and is currently on pace for his worst statistical season since the 2016-17 season.
Going back to 2021-22 to 2023-24, Rielly was superb as he collected 167 points in 219 games, was a plus-14, averaged 21:08 TOI, blocked 309 shots and landed 260 hits. Even going a bit further back, Rielly essentially averaged 50 points over 68 games between 2017-18 to 2023-24 and was truly the unsung hero on a decrepit back end in Toronto.
This year things have gone from bad to worse for the veteran, who has just 1 goal and 10 points over his last 35 games to go along with a putrid minus-19 rating. You can even shrink the sample size in half and it's not any better as he has accumulated 4 points over his last 18 games with a minus-11 rating, but still seeing a healthy 22:12 ATOI.
It's been tough on other fronts as well as he was taken off the top power play unit. He wasn't even considered an option for Team Canada at the 4-Nations Face-Off, and his role as a whole has been reduced.
As reported by Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun, Rielly is very aware of his on-ice struggles but is trying to keep a positive mindset through it all:
"Trying to keep everything in check. I feel good despite numbers and whatnot. So it's a battle right now, just trying to compete and play the best I can we all put a lot of pressure on ourselves to perform and I'm no different."
Although he's struggled mightily this season, head coach Craig Berube has not limited his playing time too much. Why? Because Berube is confident Rielly can turn things around:
"Can Morgan play better? Yes he can. We all know that. He knows that. He's trying to work through it right now. It's a team game. It's not all on Morgan. He's a good pro. He comes to work and he keeps it pretty quiet to himself. He knows that he wants to be better, and he's just trying to work through it. We try to help him. As coaches, that's our job."
While Rielly is trying to fight through the struggles, it's coming at a cost as the Maple Leafs have now lost 3 games in a row. While it's not all on the defenseman, he was certainly at fault on Marat Khusnutdinov's power play tally on Wednesday night, which opened the scoring in the first period.
The longest tenured active Maple Leafs player also has the team's worst plus/minus at minus-18, which is 12 worse than the next man up in Phil Myers, Rielly's own former D partner.
Rielly has played in all 51 games this year and is expected to continue playing in the top 4, but the Maple Leafs desperately need to see some changes.
It's safe to say he won't reach the heights of last year's 60-point pace, but if he can right the ship in the final months of the regular season, the Maple Leafs will assuredly stand a chance against some of the league's best once the playoffs roll around, while not having to completely rely on Chris Tanev and Jake McCabe to shut the door.
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