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NHL Toronto Maple Leafs

Morgan Rielly Did Not Deserve Healthy Scratch by Toronto Maple Leafs

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Rielly

John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

Randy Carlyle is rightfully being questioned for his decision to make Morgan Rielly a healthy scratch in the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ 4-3 shootout loss to the Colorado Avalanche.

Rielly has been Toronto’s best defensemen through the first month of the season and hasn’t shown any signs of suffering from a sophomore slump. Unfortunately, like most NHL players, Rielly failed to play 82 perfect games this season, and had an awful outing in a 3-2 loss against the Arizona Coyotes.

The highlight of Rielly’s bad night was when Toronto had finally found the scoreboard, cutting Arizona’s lead to 3-1. The Maple Leafs possessed all the momentum after scoring their first goal and had all the pressure in the Coyote’s zone. Rielly then turned the puck over and lost track of his man before taking a penalty in an attempt to limit a two-on-one opportunity for Arizona. The Maple Leafs managed to kill off the penalty, but had lost all the momentum the team had built prior to Rielly’s penalty.

Sitting a young defender in his second season after a tough night would normally be fine on any other team in the league. But in Rielly’s case, the sophomore didn’t deserve to be scratched against Colorado because he’d done enough to earn a pass on one bad performance. It’s not like this was a string of three or four bad games by Rielly, in which case sitting him would have been more justified.

Jake Gardiner had a pathetic turnover against the Coyotes where he appeared to be scared of getting hit, yet he played against the Avalanche before being injured. Stephane Robidas hasn’t even come close to outplaying Rielly once this season, yet he played against Colorado. Stuart Percy, who has been a pleasant surprise this season, also played against the Avalanche despite not deserving to be in the lineup over Rielly.

Carlyle is clearly attempting to send a message to Rielly, as the coach likely understands he needs the young defender to be playing at a high-level every night if the Maple Leafs stand any shot of making the playoffs. There’s no question Rielly contains the type of potential where he could be the direct key to Toronto making or missing the postseason, and this could simply be an attempt by Carlyle to motivate him.

However, given how strong Rielly has been through the first month of the season, it begs the question as to whether or not it was fair of Carlyle to scratch him. He had certainly done enough to deserve the opportunity of bouncing back from the Arizona game without having to sit in the press box, and it likely would have given the player more confidence that his coach believed in him.

This could be the type of move that backfires on Carlyle as Rielly could be looking over his shoulder after every mistake, or even playing scared and worried about sitting again. Gardiner has certainly endured a crisis of confidence courtesy of Carlyle, and if the coach begins to mentally effect Rielly as well, the Maple Leafs could see their two potential-filled puck-moving defensemen begin to regress.

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