'A Little More Involved That Way': Maple Leafs' Head Coach Craig Berube Feels The Morgan Rielly-Jake McCabe Defense Pairing Is Working

The duo have played in three games together and Berube likes what he is seeing despite the small sample size.

Morgan Rielly has had more defense partners than any other Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman this season. For a player who is supposed to lead the club offensively, it's been a bit of a rough ride for the club's longest-tenured player.

Although plus/minus is a much-maligned stat, it's hard to ignore Rielly's -16 ranking, which is lowest on the Leafs by a country mile, 10 worse than the next worst player (Philippe Myers). 

Over the last three games, Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube has tried to change things up by placing reliable defender Jake McCabe on the right side of Rielly in an effort to help ignite Rielly's offensive game.

Has it worked?

"If I look at going number-wise I think that Morgan's numbers have gone up with the offensive side of things, chances-for and stuff, and been a little bit more involved that way," Berube said on Tuesday. 

A deeper dive into NaturalStatTrick.com does show improved numbers offensively from the Rielly-McCabe pair. The pair were expected to have 2.11 goals scored over 44:10 of even-strength ice time. The expected goals-for percentage was 57.53 percent. However, it seems to have affected Chris Tanev in a bad way with an expected percentage below 50 percent, skating with veteran defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

Last three game Leafs defensive pair numbers at 5-on-5, courtesy of NaturalStatTrick.com

Although Morgan Rielly has seen some improvement over the last three games, a deeper dive into the season shows Rielly having slightly better possession numbers without Jake McCabe than with. Although the data can be a bit muddy, since half the time was tracked in transitional time on the ice together. i.e. they weren't intended to be on the ice together in the minimal time they were prior to this recent three-game stretch.

Rielly's play with and without McCabe this  season.

"It's just a little bit more time needed, I think, and a bigger sample size of it than, what is it, three games?," Berube confirmed. "Caber's going back on his offside, and I know he played it last year, but it's still an adjustment for him. So even though, you know, he played last year mostly on his offside. So he's still adjusting a little bit to it."

Despite Rielly's -16 rating, his underlying analytics are good, which is what makes the anomaly so puzzling. It could be boiled down to luck or just adjusting to a new system that emphasizes better defensive play. Nonetheless, the Leafs will continue to skate this duo out hoping Rielly can find his scoring touch.

With 22 points in 50 games, His 0.44 points per game pace would be the lowest since 2016-17 if the season were to end with the same rate.