Morgan Rielly Makes Surprising Admission About the Maple Leafs' Late Season Play
Photo credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
Morgan Rielly has had an up and down season in 2024-25, however has picked things up as of late, and has given a bit of a shocking comment regarding the team.
If the Toronto Maple Leafs were expecting Morgan Rielly to have a fantastic season, they may feel a bit underwhelmed. Although he has picked things up rapidly as of late, there was a lot of talk earlier on about whether or not he is already regressing, or if Toronto might be better cutting ties.
But Rielly has seen it all and been through some much rougher times and always persevered. While his offensive numbers aren't the elite stats that fans expect, there's no denying he's still a game changer, and has always been able to come around come playoff time.
He's a big part of Toronto's revamped defense, and it's something we've not seen from the Maple Leafs in a long time, and it could be the difference maker in the postseason, especially against powerhouses like Florida, Tampa Bay and Washington.
It's those elite teams that have given the Leafs headaches at times and most recently the team has been in the middle of a lot of close games (including Saturday's 1-0 win, the team's first win of the year only scoring one goal) and it's a great sign ahead of the playoffs, where every goal matters and close games arise.
But Rielly has felt pretty confident lately, and going into a tough first round matchup regardless; he feels the team is prepared for whatever comes their way:
It's big. You know, it's not something that we've done a lot in the past, but if you look at games recently, it's all been close. And I mean, that's what we're expecting here moving forward.
So it's a good opportunity for our best to come to out. It can be nerve-wracking when you're in these close games.
The more you do it and the more you are able to execute and rely on your structure and end up on top, it's a good feeling.
So it's a good opportunity for our best to come to out. It can be nerve-wracking when you're in these close games.
The more you do it and the more you are able to execute and rely on your structure and end up on top, it's a good feeling.
Rielly's confidence surely has been riding high as of late, with six points in his last six games, including a three-assist effort against the Hurricanes on Sunday and also raised his plus/minus to minus-11; much better than the minus-21 rating he held earlier this season.
Rielly has made the playoffs eight of his twelve seasons with the team, and while his greatest success was a second round defeat in 2022-23 and hasn't really had much of a chance to get into a deep playoff run and show what he can really do under such high stakes.
He has 40 points in 57 playoff games and while it's not eye-popping numbers, he shows up when it matters, but if he can replicate what he did a couple of years ago, the Maple Leafs are going to be a very dangerous team, and Rielly will finally get that success he's been craving for over a decade.
After defeating Philadelphia 7-2, the team has played games with scores of 3-1, 3-2 (twice), 4-3, and 1-0. Four games. Four wins. Their only really blemish was against the Panthers losing 3-1, but they weren't completely out of the game at any point.
Sure they aren't pretty at times, and while we expect a four, five, or even six-goal outburst from the team given how much offensive talent they have.
When you can only muster a couple of goals, those are too precious to mess around with, so being able to shut down opponents even under intense pressure is what makes a good team great and turn a pretender into a contender.
So we'll just have to see if Morgan Rielly's comfort in close games sticks when it comes to the playoffs, because it could get very awkward, very quickly if they start to play like years past.