Morgan Rielly's indefensible performance caught the attention of everyone on social media as the Leafs defenseman has been deep fried by several popular podcasters.
It's safe to assume that Morgan Rielly is not a popular name amongst the Toronto Maple Leafs fan base at the moment, especially with how he's played in recent games. His minus-4 performance last night was the icing on the cake and a tough conversation needs to happen.
Rielly's overall play has deteriorated over the past few seasons and his contract is essentially immovable. The Leafs are stuck in an unenviable position as they continue to ponder solutions to their problem.
With his minus-4 showing last night in over 27 minutes of ice-time, head coach Craig Berube deserves some of the blame as well, as Zach Phillips from 'The Leafs Nation' podcast summarized. Rielly was off from the moment the puck dropped, yet he saw a game-high ice-time total, when most coaches would have benched him.
To play 27 f--king minutes tonight for Morgan Rielly, having the night that he was, is just egregious by the coach as well. To continue to put the guy out there and expect at some point in this game its going to change, blows my mind.
Other podcasters had a field day with his performance as well, including Sam McKee and JD Bunkis on 'Leafs Talk'. The former let his feelings known about how difficult it is to watch Rielly play and how it's not going to get any easier in the near future.
It's just hard to watch. He's got a grenade launcher for a stick, he flubs it, he makes the wrong pass, he's just awful. He's been awful.
Bunkis then added that he would love to see compilations of plays that exhibit anything remotely close to what a puck-moving defenseman is or can do, considering that's the label still attached to Rielly.
For all this talk that he's such a good puck-moving defenseman, show me the Morgan Rielly highlight reel, go give me the cut up of the last three years of beautiful Rielly outlets and breakouts that he creates for other people. It's bad.
His point totals are no longer going to be defensible if he continues to play the way that he has but the Leafs are stuck between a rock and a hard place due to his contract and no-trade protections.
They have to continue playing him, especially with all the injuries piling up, but it's slowly becoming a deterrent to the team, and last night was a prime example. The longest tenured Leaf is going to have to get his act together in a hurry if he wants to win over the fanbase any time soon.