The Leafs, in general, are creating way less off the rush.
That is the best part of Rielly’s game: activating as a fourth forward as the far-side guy. If you look back to his most recent goal — the OT winner against Philadelphia — it came at three-on-three, but it was a good shot by him. He doesn’t own a good point shot, but he does have a good wrister from inside the top of the circle off the rush. If he winds it up, it is a problem. We saw it on the Flyers goal. He got inside the hashmark and easily ripped it by the goalie. He looked like a forward scoring the goal.
Those opportunities are not nearly as plentiful. We still see some decent things in terms of Rielly passing the puck up the ice, but the Leafs aren’t generating many opportunities where the defensemen are actively going down the ice and joining the attack straight up.
Some sort of breakdown would have to happen with the way the Leafs play it systemically. They want to chip pucks off the wall, have wingers slash across, and get pucks in deep. The adjustment will need to be to create offense from within the half-court, where you are in the offensive zone with everyone set.
Rielly can do it. When he had a great series against Tampa — as a micro-example — there were a bunch of plays where he was getting shots through traffic. It is not that he is incapable of doing it. He was sifting writers through that were either goals for himself — including an OT winner — or were tipped or deflected. He has some ability to do it.
This is a bit more of a “new normal” for him. This is the way they want him to play and generate offense. You see Berube trying to give him a few more opportunities to push him to join the rush. You are seeing more examples where Marner will pull up high and Rielly will be almost at the net sometimes. He is actively pushing down and trying to get more involved that way.
This is Rielly’s first new coach in five years. Sheldon Keefe didn’t rewrite the book from Mike Babcock on the ice — he did off the ice — in that it wasn’t a drastic shift in play. This is Rielly’s first time with a new system, of sorts, in 10 years. He is struggling to adjust to it.
You have to sit back sometimes and remember, “We are 50 games in.” It is a lot of time in one sense, but at the same time, it is not a lot. You’d like to imagine some of these guys will dial it up for the stretch drive. There is still a ton of time for him to adjust.
But he is playing at a 36-point pace, which is just not good enough.
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