The Toronto Marlies have encountered some good postseason fortune in the Calder Cup Playoffs, something that the parent Toronto Maple Leafs have not seen in over two decades. The Marlies have won three series finales in the playoffs against Rochester, Laval, and Cleveland, and in the Eastern Conference Final, the club leads the best-of-seven series 2-0 after a pair of road wins over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
After a Game 1 in which Toronto won 4-2 but managed only 16 shots on goal, the Marlies peppered Penguins goalie Sergei Murashov with 39 shots in Game 2 on Friday, but the final puck that beat the young Russian was not a blast from the point or a snipe from the slot; it was a bloop from the blueline off the stick of Michael Pezzetta. The enforcer scored the game-winner on Wednesday, and just under 15 minutes into overtime, he flipped a puck towards the goal, which hit off of Murashov’s blocker and into the net.
Alex Nylander scored for Toronto to give them a 1-0 first-period lead, a lead that held up into the third, when Tanner Howe beat Artur Akhtyamov to tie the game. Akhtyamov once again was stellar in goal for the Marlies, with 33 saves for his ninth win of the postseason.
“It was probably one of our better games that we played. That just tells you how good (WBS) is. As skilled as they are, they defend really well,” Marlies head coach John Gruden said after the game. “They track, they’ve got some good players on that team. It was one of our better games. I thought (through) 60 minutes, we did a lot of good things. We were better tonight than Game 1. But anything can happen; there’s a lot of deciding factors. I just liked the way we played, and it was good to get out of there with the ‘W’.”
The series now shifts to Toronto for the next three games, potentially. If the Marlies can win twice at Coca-Cola Coliseum, they will reach the Calder Cup Final for the first time since 2018.
The narrative of the Maple Leafs looking to move on from defenseman Morgan Rielly has been in place for the last two seasons, which coincided with the mismanagement of former head coach Craig Berube. The 32-year-old was one of many who struggled last season, dropping to just 36 points (11 goals, 25 assists) in 78 games, but at the end of the season, Rielly echoed what he said to former GM Brad Treliving last summer.
“It’s a challenging thing to answer when those conversations haven’t happened yet. After a year like this, after any year, but especially one that can be very disappointing, change is bound to happen. I think as an athlete, you have to be prepared for that. Not the first time that it’s crossed my mind. It’s not that’s not something that anyone believes that they’re not open to, so when that conversation happens, we’ll deal with it accordingly,” Rielly said. “I’ve always wanted to stay. I still want to stay (and) I love playing here. I love being a Maple Leaf, and this organization means a lot to me.”
Reading between the lines, if Rielly says he does not want to go anywhere, even if the organization says they do not want him or that it’s the best for both sides to go their separate ways, he is not going anywhere. What this does leave open is if Rielly receives interest from somewhere he wants to go to, then a trade is possible.
TSN’s Darren Dreger reported on Friday that Leafs GM John Chayka may talk to the veteran blueliner about waiving his no-movement clause after Rielly returns from the World Championships in Switzerland, but there is no guarantee that he will waive his trade protection. For a club that is not exactly strong on defense to deal a defenseman capable of playing in the league is fairly stupid.
Clearly, Rielly is not the slick-skating blueliner he was three or four years ago, or someone who should play 20-25 minutes a night as Berube was using him, but that does not mean that he is incapable of playing second-pairing minutes.
