**NEW THIS AFTERNOON: MITCH MARNER IS SITTING OUT FOR THE MAPLE LEAFS TONIGHT IN CALGARY (9 p.m. TSN, SPORTSNET WEST) WITH A MYSTERY AILMENT. TSN CALLS MARNER’S ABSENCE “CURIOUS”. IT’S HIS FIRST MISSED GAME OF THE SEASON. OR… IS SOMETHING MUCH BIGGER IN THE WORKS?**
TORONTO (Feb. 4) — Justin Bourne of Sportsnet wrote on Monday that “Morgan Rielly is going nowhere [via trade].” I don’t imagine the TV/website personality spent a sleepless night coming up with that bulletin. He knows his favorite team better than most and is surely supportive of “running it back” for another decade, if possible.
Ubiquitous media types such as Bourne have become so brainwashed by the Toronto hockey environment that no alternate strategy is comprehendible. This is hastened and promoted, of course, by working for the company (Rogers) that will soon control 75 percent of the Maple Leafs’ pie. We’ve written about it often in this corner. So, even if Rielly, for anyone that wishes to pay attention, has shown to be incompatible with coach Craig Berube’s defensive system, he’s a team stalwart and “good defensemen are hard to come by.” Case closed. Next subject.
Were Bourne, like the owners of the Maple Leafs, not petrified to move forward without one of the core figures — and/or could view a circumstance beyond tones of blue and white — he would openly question how this Toronto defense can be considered Stanley Cup–worthy. With the club’s long–time “best” defenseman perhaps third or fourth–best at the moment. And, no one else in the neighborhood of “elite”. Instead, we get a lazy, dismissive remark that places no responsibility on Maple Leafs management: “Yup, [Rielly has] not been great so far this year. But he’s got more to give, and he’s going to be a part of the club, so let’s move on from that option.” It must be so simple (perhaps encouraged) at Rogers to paper over such an obvious area of vulnerability with the Leafs.
Which the Toronto back end has been since Gerald Ford occupied the Oval Office.
So, undesirable as they are, let me present a few facts: Ian Turnbull (1973–81) is considered the premier offensive defenseman in Leafs history. His 79 points in 1976–77 remains the team standard for blueliners. Turnbull, in 580 games with Toronto, scored 33 powerplay goals. Rielly, in 843 games, has 15. Which clearly reflects his lack of shooting velocity from the point. It’s no coincidence that Rielly often wrists the puck low, toward the net, looking for a tip–in or deflection. He knows his limitation. Not since Dion Phaneuf (2010–16), in fact, has a Toronto defenseman propelled the puck with scoring momentum. Dion had a big, heavy shot.
The following NHL defensemen scored more powerplay goals in one season than Rielly in his career (thus far): Sheldon Souray (19 in 2006–07); Mike Green, Denis Potvin, Adrian Aucoin (18); Al MacInnis, Brian Leetch (17); Bobby Orr, Scott Stevens and, yes, Dion Phaneuf (16). That’s right, in 2005–06, with Calgary, Phaneuf scored more powerplay goals than Rielly has in 12 seasons with the Leafs. No joke. Potvin, MacInnis, Leetch, Orr and Stevens are in the Hockey Hall of Fame with a combined 11 Stanley Cups. Paul Coffey, as gifted as Orr offensively, had 14 PPG in 1983–84 with the dynastic Edmonton Oilers. Paul wears five Stanley Cup rings.
More? Thirty nine NHL defensemen have higher point totals than Rielly this season. Including such household names as Brandt Clarke (Los Angeles), Jackson LaCombe (Anaheim), Bowen Bryam (Buffalo) and Thomas Harley (Dallas). But, hey, Justin Bourne writes that we should “move on.”
It is this type of blind media devotion — broadcast every weekday in the key afternoon–drive hours — that contributes to a team winning one playoff series in 22 years. Satisfaction is so–easily attained here in the maudlin Six. And, it’s all over the place… even if not so–virulenty presented as by Bourne and Luke Fox at the “head office”.
Fox has been licking his lips since the National Hockey League announced an exponential increase in the salary cap for each team. Why it required two extra days for him to post a “now we can for sure stay together” column is a mystery. But, there it was at the lunch hour on Monday: HOW NHL’s CAP LEAP AFFECTS MARNER, LEAFS.
Wrote the Lukester, from Calgary, where the Leafs play tonight: If Mitch Marner really wants to make more money than Auston Matthews, he should be able to. Doing so and remaining a Toronto Maple Leaf, however, is a more complicated proposition. But the player can certainly build that case, and the team can find the budget to make it happen — if it so desires. There we go: Unqualified fantasy. Just keep giving them more money; more years and more term. That grandiose third round of the Stanley Cup chase will surely happen at some point.
Over at Postmedia (the Toronto Sun), the undeserving triumph at Edmonton on Saturday was enough to right the ship. After three consecutive losses (and six in nine games), the Leafs started quickly at Rogers Place and built a 3–0 lead. In the last 40 minutes, however, the Oilers skated circles around the Toronto defense and peppered Joseph Woll with 48 shots. Only Woll’s runaway best NHL performance and a sharp video challenge by Berube prevented the Maple Leafs from folding with a 4–1, third–period lead (sounds vaguely familiar, doesn’t it?).
Yet, this was the Postmedia Leafs headline on Sunday: FROM HIGHLIGHT–REEL GOALS TO BLUE–LINE GRIT, TORONTO APPEARS TO BE BACK ON TRACK. A miracle victory stolen by the netminder… and the Leafs are “back on track”. Once more — the ease of satisfaction in Leafs Land. This time from a rare media enterprise with no affiliation to Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. Never in my years following the Leafs have I seen the club treated so delicately. With kid gloves. Again, after one playoff–round conquest in the past generation.
All Brad Treliving needs (on Mar. 7) is to bring Ilya Lyubushkin back to the city for the eleventh time.
Mission accomplished.
EMAIL: HOWARDLBERGER@GMAIL.COM
