Morgan Rielly addresses Leafs defensive issues; hopefully some things will improve with Lyubushkin
As they seem to every season, the Leafs have identified a weakness in their game. Defense. This season and last have seen an improvement over previous years, but the Leafs still have room to improve and they'll have to if they plan to make it out of the murderers row that is the Atlantic Division in the postseason.
The good news is that they know there is an issue and there is help on the way in defensive defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin. Morgan Rielly admitted before Monday's game against the Montreal Canadiens that the Leafs' team defense has slipped of late.
«How we're playing defense has to get better, especially off the rush and we've been talking about that lately so hopefully here tonight we're able to execute a little bit better.»
-Rielly on traveling down the road to defensive improvement starting tonight in Montreal. Here's the full 4-minute clip below!
Having Lyubushkin in the fold soon will help the Buds a bit in that area. Nicknamed "The Russian Bear", Lyubushkin is a big, physical defensive defenseman who will be leaned on to try and limit the oppositions chances - specifically their second chances in front of the net - by clearing guys out of there and not giving the opposition anything easy.
Of course, defense is a team game. It seems the most dangerous chances that the Leafs give up are passes to the trailing forward on the rush. If the Leafs are to improve their defensive game, the forward group needs to get better at picking up that trailing forward.
Tonight's game should be a good indicator of whether the Leafs are going to take their conversations about defense to heart. They won't have Lyubushkin in the lineup just yet to do a lot of the heavy lifting, but that shouldn't stop the rest of the team from making a better effort in their own end.
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