Maple Leafs Promote Oliver Ekman-Larsson After Winning Over Coach Craig Berube
Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored his first as a Maple Leaf on Thursday and has impressed his head coach enough to earn the top defensive pairing assignment at practice.
With Toronto suffering another defeat on Thursday at the hands of head coach Craig Berube's old team, the St. Louis Blues, it was back to the drawing board as the team took the ice for practice. The forward contingent stayed intact from Thursday, however, the defensive pairings had a brand new look:
Oliver Ekman-Larsson found himself paired with Morgan Rielly on the top defensive pairing, sliding Chris Tanev alongside Jake McCabe. Ekman-Larsson scored the only goal for the Maple Leafs last night and has looked like he did when he played in Arizona over a decade ago.
Will OEL Elevate Morgan Rielly's Game?
It's a switch-up Berube feels is necessary, and Morgan Rielly's awful start to the season has led him to believe OEL is the man for the job. He'll be tasked with trying to bring Toronto's long-time defenseman around and try and give him a new look; although it's yet another partner Rielly has to deal with through his career.
Rielly is currently playing some of the worst statistical hockey in his career, and making some costly mistakes:
It's not lost on the fans either, who are growing increasingly tired of Rielly's lack of production and defensive liabilities, especially given the Maple Leafs are paying him $7.5M:
Currently, Rielly is having the worst start to his career ever, and during his 2013-2014 rookie season still had one more point over the same stretch of eight games. He's defensively one of the weakest in recent years and while it may be due to an overload of responsibility, there's no excuse after 12 years in the league; he can't cover up his lack of defense with his offensive production anymore, and is far removed from being able to do things like this:
So with the question being if Oliver Ekman-Larsson's placement alongside Morgan Rielly will elevate his game, the answer is simply yes: Rielly's already hit rock bottom, the only way to go now is up. At least, that's what the Maple Leafs hope will happen.
| POLL | ||
Should Oliver Ekman-Larsson become Toronto's #1 defenseman over Morgan Rielly? | ||
