Its all comes down to leadership for me..
Morgan Rielly should be wearing the "C" and Willy and "A" and be out front for the Leafs ..
In terms of players like Matthews and Marner their NMC clauses should = No More Comments (sort of like when people are forced to sign non disclosure agreements when organizations don't want someone commenting on internal affairs).
We saw this play out yesterday when JT commented on "right there" and Mo Riells disagrees with his captain.
At the start of locker room cleanout day, Leafs captain John Tavares stated that the team is "right there". This is a sentiment that is not shared by Morgan Rielly.
Rielly was under no misconceptions about what the Leafs left on the table in Game 7, blowing a golden opportunity to beat the Bruins in regulation after William Nylander opened the scoring in the 3rd period. Unfortunately, when the Leafs surrendered the lead and gave the Bruins second life just 1:21 later, it became very clear that this team isn't as prepared to go deep as many thought when they had erased a 3-1 deficit to force Game 7.
"I don't want to stand here and say we are on the doorstep of anything because we're standing here again today So how close are we? I don't know, we'll see. It seems both obtainable and a ways away." Morgan Rielly