Morgan Rielly played a season low 16:27 against Montreal on Saturday night. The last time he played so few minutes was 2 years ago, on Nov 21st, 2022, against the New York Islanders. He left the game early due to injury and didn’t play again for a month. If we’re not talking about games that resulted in injury and if my research is correct, the last time Rielly played under 17 minutes in a game was Dec 28th, 2014, which was his second year in the league. While playing the 4th amount of minutes among the defense in a game might not seem like much, it was certainly a statement from the coach that defense isn’t just his partner’s responsibility, the question is if the Leafs highest paid blueliner will listen. #44 was on the ice for the 1st goal, which wasn’t his fault exactly, but he didn’t help the situation either. For Montreal’s 3rd goal he attempted to deny entry into the zone and failed due to poor positioning (aka, playing swordsies with the Hab with the puck and losing, instead of taking the body) and eventually leaving his defense partner in a very tough situation. From there Berube turned to Jake McCabe (26:06), Chris Tanev (24:16) and OEL (22:35) to power the team to the tune of 0 goals allowed for the rest of the game and 2pts in the standings.
Again, if you rewatch Montreal’s 3rd goal, you will not only see Rielly play it poorly but also Max Domi. He got in position behind Rielly when his defender stepped up, which was the right play, but then Josh Anderson simply walked around him because Domi was facing the wrong way, which left Philippe Myers alone on a 2-on-1. This is one of the reason’s that Domi shouldn’t remain as their 3rd line centre. His defensive play is poor and that goal doesn’t happen if they have anybody in that spot that is more aware in their own zone.
Philippe Myers played the least of all blueliners, at 8:14. I’d felt very good about his game previously, but at some point you need your partner to help you and he hasn’t gotten that help. It’s a tough situation to be placed into, trying to cover for the mistakes of a player that has never taken criticism for not playing well defensively, so has never had (tried? wanted?) to improve in that area. When things break down it’s easier to bench the player that hasn’t gotten as strong of a foothold as a regular NHLer and doesn’t make $7.5M per season. Did he have a bad game? Sure, it’s tough to argue with that. However, shouldn’t the 30 year old player that hasn’t played under 17 minutes a night since his second NHL season be sheltering you, instead of leaving you out to dry?
Joseph Woll played a great game after the 1st period as well, but since Stolarz went down he simply hasn’t been consistent. He has a 0.894SV% in 13 starts since then. 7 of those games he posted a save percentage of 0.880 or less, while he had a 0.920 or above in 5 games. His 0.914 against the Habs on Saturday night was the lone game in between those two numbers. It seems to be all or nothing at the moment. The wins are still being put up on the board, so I wouldn’t suggest rushing Stolarz back, and, in his defense, this is what we should expect from a young goaltender with so few NHL starts under his belt. At the end of the day, if Stolarz comes back and picks up where he left off, we should expect him to get the edge in games over his younger running mate.
Dennis Hildeby has allowed 5 goals on 50 shots over his past 2 starts, for a 0.900SV%. He’s allowed 3 goals or less in 4 of his 5 starts this season as well. While his 3.18GAA and 0.891SV% on the season isn’t something to write home about, he’s only had a single really poor game and he’s receiving some very valuable development time right now. It’s the only silver lining I can find amongst the Stolarz injury.
Matt Murray has a 1.74GAA and 0.933SV% in the AHL. He’s improving as the year moves along and will surely find his way back into the NHL as a backup, for at least a trial period, at some point.
William Nylander has 2 goals and 3pts in his past 2 games to go along with a +3 rating. He had 1 goals and 3pts over a 9 game span previous to that, with a -8 rating (yes, I know +/- is a flawed stat). When he wants to produce he can and, to beat this dead horse, it amazes me that people say that as if it’s a positive thing. Players such as Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon also produce when they want, but they simply want to all the time. Having the 6th highest caphit in the NHL, while being 26th in league scoring isn’t good enough. He’s being paid alongside elite company and he can be great, but he doesn’t do it nearly enough.
There are 9 players that are tied for the 20th to 28th highest caphit in the league, which is $9.5M. They are Adam Fox, Matt Tkachuk, Jamie Benn, Brayden Point, Alex Ovechkin, Mark Stone, Charlie MacAvoy, Nikita Kucherov and Seth Jones. That’s the financial tier that Nylander belongs to. Instead he’s among players such as McDavid, MacKinnon, David Pastrnak and Rasmus Dahlin, who are clearly a step above him.
Fraser Minten shouldn’t have been the player called up to the Leafs and that’s based on nothing more than the fact that they aren’t playing him. With 10pts in 16 games for the AHL Toronto Marlies, it’s clear that he’s still developing his offensive game. If this were a former Leafs draft pick, such as Freddy Gauthier, who projected to be a 4th line centre, then you’d dismiss his lack of offensive production but Minten has more potential than that.
The exchange between Ryan Reaves and Arbor Xhekaj is now funny from a Leafs fan’s perspective. To deny Reaves a fight while pointing to the scoreboard, only to get blown out at the end of the game feels like poetic justice.
Reaves still needs to find a dance partner though.
The Leafs are in the midst of their lightest schedule of the season. They have just 8 games in 20 days remaining before a nearly 2 week break for the 4 Nations Cup. After that break they’ll have just 7 games before the trade deadline. The season is rolling past quickly. The hope is that they can stay in a winning groove. Sometimes too much time off isn’t good either.
I’ve mentioned this before as well and it really shows the mentality of the group as a whole. When asked about the vibe in the room during the 1st intermission on Saturday, after giving Montreal a 3-0 lead in the 1st period, multiple players stated that they know they’re a good team and they could come back and win, which they did. I’m on the fence about this mentality, because I still believe that they aren’t a good team until they prove it. Good teams go on playoff runs and they haven’t. Maybe it’s this “we’re good, we’ll break through” mentality that has resulted in 1st round exit after 1st round exit. While I like the confidence, I’d also rather see them adopt a “we’re a hard working team, we’ll break through” mentality instead.
John Klingberg signed with the Edmonton Oilers this past week. That’s a good miss for the Leafs. Whatever it is that they do with the blueline, I have to assume it will be a better move than adding a Klingberg type of player.
A lot of talk about Saturday’s game in this week’s writeup. I think we saw all the good and all of the bad that this team has to offer in a single night and that’s why. It was a microcosm of this core’s entire tenure here, essentially, which should be worrisome to us all.