Earlier this week the Toronto Maple Leafs held their end of season press conference for both the players and head coach Sheldon Keefe. Everyone was disappointed with the result and reflected on their series loss against the Boston Bruins, but it was more of the same in regards to their answers when they took questions from the media.
The players and coach maintained believe and faith in the group. Keefe, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and even John Tavares remained positive about this group and that they can get it done. However, the longest tenured Maple Leafs player, Morgan Rielly, was probably the most critical of the group and what lies ahead.
While everyone was maintaining the status quo in regards to this core group, Rielly broke free and gave a very reasonable and honest answer that many wanted to hear.
Rielly Breaks From Status Quo
While many were still disheartened with the result, but being optimistic about the future, Rielly didn’t go the same route as his fellow teammates. He has seen enough disappointment and failure in the past to know that this can’t keep going on.
His comment during his end of year media availability basically said what fans and media alike are feeling. It wasn’t good enough and that the team isn’t close to competing compared to those that are still in the hunt for the Stanley Cup.
“I don’t want to stand here and try to tell you that we’re on the doorstep of anything because we’re sitting here today doing this,” Rielly said according to TSN’s Mark Masters. “The belief is there that it’s attainable, but there’s work and improvement that has to take place. So, how close are we? I don’t know, we’ll see. It feels both attainable and a ways away and that’s what drives you as an individual. That’s what drives a team forward to either have success or we’ll see.”
For the first time in a long time, we got a realistic and candid answer from a core member of this team as Rielly didn’t sugar coat anything. He also added that this year stung the most given how things played out in Game 7 and that “anything other than a championship is a disappointment.”
Related: Maple Leafs’ Friday Presser Will Determine Team’s Direction
It’s great that Rielly still has that belief, but saying that there’s more work to be done and that there needs to be improvement is a very strong depiction of how he feels about this team. Rielly is…
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