Rielly looks free, back to form for Maple Leafs in season-opening win

TORONTO -- It was the 108th season opener in the illustrious history of the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday.

In the end, it would prove to be unlike any other.

Just ask Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly.

The 31-year-old proved to be the hero in Toronto’s 2025-26 curtain raiser, scoring the winner at 9:02 of the third period en route to a 5-2 victory against the rival Montreal Canadiens in front of 19,037 at Scotiabank Arena.

As he met with the media inside the Maple Leafs dressing room after the game, you could hear the crowd outside in the arena bowl cheering. Thousands had stayed behind to watch the final inning of the Toronto Blue Jays’ 5-2 win against the New York Yankees on the center ice video screen, a victory that allowed them to advance to the American League Championship Series.

Rielly admitted he and his teammates were well aware of the “Let’s Go Blue Jays” chants raining down from the crowd during the game.

“I liked it,” the veteran defenseman said, breaking into a wry grin. “It’s not the first time I’ve heard that [during a game]. I heard them early in my career in a negative way, 2015, 2016, whenever that was.”

He was, of course, referring to the 2015-16 season, one in which the then-dismal Maple Leafs went 29-42-11. Disgusted fans would mock the team with the pro-Blue Jays cheers, insinuating at the time that watching the city’s Major League Baseball team was much more entertaining than its NHL team.

For Rielly, the longest serving member of the Maple Leafs, things would get much better the following season for both he and the team. Toronto qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2016-17 and has been in the postseason every year since then.

But that didn’t mean he was happy with his play. Far from it.

He admittedly was tentative last season, his first under incoming coach Craig Berube. He finished minus-8 and thought he could improve offensively, something the team needed him to do. In fact, at the beginning of training camp last month, he told reporters he was “disappointed in myself” at how he’d performed.

To that end, he met with Berube and general manager Brad Treliving during the summer asking how he could elevate his game. The response: Get back to the free-flowing style that had made him successful prior to 2024-25.

Judging by his play Wednesday, he received the message loud and clear.

“I thought he had a really good game,” Berube said. “He skated well, moved the puck well, made good reads. He defended well [too]. He was really solid tonight.”

That being the case, what did the coach think was the reason that Rielly didn’t play up to his usual level last season?

“I don’t have the answer for that,” Berube said. “I wish I did. I do think he got to a good standard over time.

“I think that, coming in [last season], we changed the style of the team. Not so much run-and-gun but controlling the game and playing good defense. And I think he took that to heart about playing better defense. And sometimes if you do that, you’re not aggressive enough, and you’re not jumping into the play because you don’t want to take chances as much. So that might have been part of it.”

Berube said Rielly began to regain the offensive flair of years past during the latter stages of last season when he was paired with Brandon Carlo, a trade deadline acquisition from the Boston Bruins. Carlo is the prototypical stay-at-home d-man, allowing Rielly the freedom to rush up the ice more.

That’s exactly what transpired against the Canadiens.

“Everyone in here wants to play well the first game,” Rielly said. “You work hard all summer -- everyone -- and you just want to get off on the right foot. We had lots of guys that did that.”

Forward Bobby McMann regularly skated with Rielly at Ford Performance Center, the team’s practice facility, during July and August.

“He showed up every day,” said McMann, who opened the scoring Wednesday. “Put the work in, continued to be a professional this far into his career. He’s still hungry, he still wants it.

“He wants to win so bad, and he wants the best for himself.”

And for the city of Toronto too.

It was, after all, a special night for the local sports fans. The Maple Leafs won their opener. The Blue Jays advanced to baseball’s final four. The town, Rielly said, is buzzing right now.

“A bunch of us had the chance to go to the game Sunday,” he said, referring to Toronto’s 13-7 win against the Yankees in Game 2 of the American League Divisional Series. “There’s just a cool energy [around town] …

“It obviously crosses over a little bit, so it’s a really fun time to be around here.”

Even more so if his play Wednesday is a sign of things to come.