Mo Rielly - "Our Norris Trophy Candidate"

[Gallagbi]

ask yourself this

if Andy was in goal how many of the people blaming Mo would switch to blaming Andy ?

Why not both? Rielly botched two plays, both should have been saves ultimately.

First issue (second goal of the game) was much more on Rielly than the second since he creates a screen and does legitimately nothing but cause defensive issues on the play. .

Second issue (third goal) was just a poorly played 2on1 that led to a decent result for him on the play. Campbell simply needs to make the save, which he wasn't in position for.

Overall Rielly had a really tough night, poor decisions with the puck and a number of defensive misreads. That time he went to Brodie's side to cover a nothing play which led to a partial break was the lowlight

 

[Avilaj07]

ask yourself this

if Andy was in goal how many of the people blaming Mo would switch to blaming Andy ?

I'm not blaming just Rielly on that goal. If you read my post you would see that I said Campbell didn't position himself properly. But instead of ignoring that, you just chose to ignore everything I said about Rielly and brought up Freddy for no reason. Just because Campbell let in a goal doesn't mean it was strictly just his fault when Rielly was the one who failed to realize who the puck carrier was and instead of forcing him to either take a rushed shot or a near perfect pass, Rielly decided to slide over to cover a player that by then Mikheyev was already beside and allowed Anderson a free shot.

 

[hotpaws]

Why not both? Rielly botched two plays, both should have been saves ultimately.

First issue (second goal of the game) was much more on Rielly than the second since he creates a screen and does legitimately nothing but cause defensive issues on the play. .

Second issue (third goal) was just a poorly played 2on1 that led to a decent result for him on the play. Campbell simply needs to make the save, which he wasn't in position for.

Overall Rielly had a really tough night, poor decisions with the puck and a number of defensive misreads. That time he went to Brodie's side to cover a nothing play which led to a partial break was the lowlight

yup you can blame both and you can also roll the play back and blame who caused the 2 on 1 to start with

but my point wasn't simply who was to blame but why people choose to blame the player they do

if Andy was in net few would jump on Mo , if it was Brodie and not Mo defending on the 2 on1 it wouldn't have been Brodie or Campbell getting blamed but Mo for causing the 2 on 1

basically it seems people pick and choose who to rip based on the players involved

 

[Gallagbi]

yup you can blame both and you can also roll the play back and blame who caused the 2 on 1 to start with

but my point wasn't simply who was to blame but why people choose to blame the player they do

if Andy was in net few would jump on Mo , if it was Brodie and not Mo defending on the 2 on1 it wouldn't have been Brodie or Campbell getting blamed but Mo for causing the 2 on 1

basically it seems people pick and choose who to rip based on the players involved

Campbell took a lot of heat in the GDT for the goals, many of the people there (myself included) were those harping on Andy when he let in similar ones.

Id agree with your point if Rielly or the many others were underserving of the criticism, but that isn't the case. Rielly has struggled with some basic defensive reads and concepts for a little while now and it's gotten worse lately. Worth calling out in my opinion, even if his overall play isn't a net negative. Some low hanging fruit would make him a much more effective player right now.

 

[Stephen]

Campbell took a lot of heat in the GDT for the goals, many of the people there (myself included) were those harping on Andy when he let in similar ones.

Id agree with your point if Rielly or the many others were underserving of the criticism, but that isn't the case. Rielly has struggled with some basic defensive reads and concepts for a little while now and it's gotten worse lately. Worth calling out in my opinion, even if his overall play isn't a net negative. Some low hanging fruit would make him a much more effective player right now.

Rielly's getting some criticism for three reasons even if overall he's not a net negative. First, his poor play on the PP (along with all of his teammates on PP1) and second continual misreads on the defensive side of things. Often times when things go wrong defensively, it seems like his processing ability lags for one split second and it puts him completely out of the play and he's left scrambling. It's the high visibility miscues that Bryan McCabe used to suffer from that gets on people's nerves.

The third big point is anxiety over his future. He's a UFA at the end of next year and is entering his late 20s. He's primarily a rushing/skating defenseman and has logged some huge minutes over the years on poor defensive teams. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself here, but what is his career trajectory? He hasn't come close to matching his 2018 season.

 

[unitedstars87]

All this talk right now is pointless.. let’s see who shows up on this team come playoff time.

 

[Jimmy Firecracker]

Got burned in OT again. Why hasn’t Rielly asked Brodie how to play 2 on 1s?

 

[GQS]

Anyone who says that Rielly is better than Brodie is out to lunch. Rielly isn't horrible defensively, but he's definitely not a #1 dman or at least he shouldn't be. I said a long time ago that the Leafs should trade Rielly sooner rather than later or if they insist on re-signing him then don't give him a huge Phaneuf like contract that will look bad really quickly.

 

[Stephen]

Got burned in OT again. Why hasn’t Rielly asked Brodie how to play 2 on 1s?

I used to say Morgan Rielly should take more time to assess the play before launching into a mad dash up the ice, and the sign of a D-man who can truly control the play is one who can regroup, turn back and slow things down to control the tempo of the play. Lately, he seems to be slowing it down but has trouble winding it up again. Just picks the wrong moment to switch into the wrong gear (like that stop up play on the PP vs Formenton), and generally plays any given 2 on 1 like it's a lost cause. He's just so sloppy defensively.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

Anyone who says that Rielly is better than Brodie is out to lunch. Rielly isn't horrible defensively, but he's definitely not a #1 dman or at least he shouldn't be. I said a long time ago that the Leafs should trade Rielly sooner rather than later or if they insist on re-signing him then don't give him a huge Phaneuf like contract that will look bad really quickly.

All on Matthews for not covering his man and puck watching 4 feet away from Rielly. Boneheaded puck watching by Matthews.

 

[Stephen]

All on Matthews for not covering his man and puck watching 4 feet away from Rielly. Boneheaded puck watching by Matthews.

Well, it's on all of them. Matthews was brutal, Marner was in hero mode and Rielly was caught puck watching while stationary.

 

[klmdg]

He potentially made one good play tonight on the Hyman goal

And that is if you buy into the shooting wide on purpose argument

 

[klmdg]

All on Matthews for not covering his man and puck watching 4 feet away from Rielly. Boneheaded puck watching by Matthews.

100%, but that does not absolve Mo from being utterly uselss everytime he faces a 2 on 1

He is the only d-man in the league with no f***ing clue what to do and he hangs his goalie out to dry time and time again because of his indecision

 

[Leaf4Life79]

Mo Rielly! our end of season trade candidate!

 

[Mats13]

He’s not good defensively. I think we have to accept that.

At the same time though, none of our defenceman can move the puck outside of Rielly. He’s the only elite puck mover we’ve got. If we get rid of him our defence gets substantially worse at moving the puck.

 

[Michael HOMERUNing]

The reality is Rielly has been terrible defensively for quite some time. It's just that this year there isn't any Zaitsev or Barrie or Marincin to take the blame. Naturally this fanbase has to rip on at least one defenseman at any point in time, and this year it's Mo

 

[LeafGrief]

All three of them are wearing that goal. Matthews in particular took an ill advised step towards Gaudreau in the neutral zone at the same time as Marner and then chose to attack Lindholm instead of just sticking to Gaudreau. Rielly gets caught watching the puck on Lindholm's stick, doesn't recognize that Matthews is going after him, and leaves Gaudreau all alone. Some smart simple defense from any of them would have prevented a nothing play from turning into a breakaway.

Just posting so that I can quote myself when some of the knuckleheads inevitably post, "where the Rielly defenders at??" Can't say I care too much about the outcome of this game, but it was clear the minute that powerplay expired that they were all feeling sorry for themselves and going to lose.

 

[GQS]

All on Matthews for not covering his man and puck watching 4 feet away from Rielly. Boneheaded puck watching by Matthews.

I'm not saying its all on Rielly for that play, but having seen him in alot of OTs, he shouldn't be the first Dman on the ice for OT all the time. Not the best decision making playing 3 vs 3 and I especially don't like all the crappy low percentage shots he makes that are easy saves for goalies and then it often turns into 2 on 1s going the other way.

Rielly isn't the only one guilty of throwing crappy shots at the net hoping it will go in, but I wish he would do it less. And it bugs me to no end during many games to see him rush with the puck down one side of the ice and then shoot it almost directly into a goalie's chest instead of doing something else with it to try and create a better scoring chance.

 

[NK94]

His daily public skates are getting harder to stomach and to ignore. Hope he understands Brodie can’t bail him out all the time.

 

[Wafflewhipper]

100%, but that does not absolve Mo from being utterly uselss everytime he faces a 2 on 1

He is the only d-man in the league with no f***ing clue what to do and he hangs his goalie out to dry time and time again because of his indecision

Morgan Rielly has regressed to worse than his year prior to his big year. His skating is not near as good but his handling of the puck and giveaways are brutal. Matthews watched the puck on that one and thought he was going to catch the guy Rielly already had cutting to the middle. He passed boom, game over. Sandin will replace Morgan Rielly one day and put up points getting all the ice time. Dermott would be better on the powerplay. He’s quicker than Rielly. Dermott is the quickest defenseman on the team. I think he is being underutilized by Keefe. He should get powerplay time and send a message to Riley that he’s just not good wnough on the point of our PP. This team is quite soft yet. Sabourine gets 3 hits in a little over 4 minutes and they play do nothing Engvall 12 minutes. It’s a joke. Simmons can’t fight with his hand i suppose, can’t pass,can’t shoot,can’t see the ice. Certain players are getting a pass on this team and it’s hurting them

 

[6ix]

8 f***ing years in the league and he still can’t break up a 2 on 1 and hasn’t improved his shot. Hopefully leafs move on from him.

 

[Gallagbi]

I'm not saying its all on Rielly for that play, but having seen him in alot of OTs, he shouldn't be the first Dman on the ice for OT all the time. Not the best decision making playing 3 vs 3 and I especially don't like all the crappy low percentage shots he makes that are easy saves for goalies and then it often turns into 2 on 1s going the other way.

Rielly isn't the only one guilty of throwing crappy shots at the net hoping it will go in, but I wish he would do it less. And it bugs me to no end during many games to see him rush with the puck down one side of the ice and then shoot it almost directly into a goalie's chest instead of doing something else with it to try and create a better scoring chance.

Brodie is the only other option. Would be interesting to see him with Marner and Matthews. The Tavares pair (Willy when he comes back) could use Rielly's speed

 

[Wafflewhipper]

He’s not good defensively. I think we have to accept that.

At the same time though, none of our defenceman can move the puck outside of Rielly. He’s the only elite puck mover we’ve got. If we get rid of him our defence gets substantially worse at moving the puck.

Give Sandin his minutes and he’ll do everything Rielly positively does season one.

 

[GQS]

Brodie is the only other option. Would be interesting to see him with Marner and Matthews. The Tavares pair (Willy when he comes back) could use Rielly's speed

You could definitely put Brodie out there first and Holl has looked decent in OT as well. Just saying that Rielly doesn't always have to be the number one option.

 

[SeaOfBlue]

Give Sandin his minutes and he’ll do everything Rielly does season one

Aren't you missing the