The Leafs are still fragile. Ryan O’Reilly can’t be another Nick Foligno

VANCOUVER—What happens if Ryan O’Reilly is really hurt? Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said an update could come Monday, when the team practises in New Jersey. He didn’t look thrilled.

Because O’Reilly’s status being up in the air has an uneasy similarity to, say, Nick Foligno, another veteran sandpaper star whom the Leafs acquired at the deadline some years ago, and who hurt his back three days in and was never the same player with Toronto as they missed their best chance ever to advance in the playoffs. That was the year they played in the Canadian Division, got Montreal in the first round, went up 3-1 in the series, outshot the Canadiens 13-2 in overtime in Game 6, and lost in Game 7. Maybe a healthy Foligno gets you through, instead of producing one assist in four playoff games. Toronto never got the chance to find out.

O’Reilly had been with the Leafs for a little over two weeks when Auston Matthews loaded up and blasted a slapshot Saturday night in Vancouver that hit O’Reilly; he shook his hand in pain, left the game, didn’t come back. The team didn’t update his status. He was just gone.

Maybe it’s a bruise and nothing more. But until the update comes it’s a worry, because O’Reilly is the jewel of the frantic Leafs trade deadline haul.

“He’s fit in seamlessly. His habits, the way he prepares, the way he practises, were notorious before he arrived, and everything he’s done since has back that up,” general manager Kyle Dubas said in Vancouver on Friday. “But on the ice, obviously he’s produced right off the bat. But then I think more importantly than that, than the production, it’s the way that he plays.

“No matter who we’re playing against or what time it is, he’s doing everything the exact way I think you have to play when you really want to win. So it’s not always stuff that stands out on TV, or even on film. But he’s above his man all the time when they’re trying to leave the zone, so it prevents the other team from breaking out clean a lot of the time. His stick details, forecheck, how strong he is on the puck — things that for me, over time in this job, have stood out time and again in the playoffs as vitally important — he does them all to the ultimate degree every time he’s on the ice, and he’s done that already.

“And you can see that starting to impact some of the other players on the team. So he’s been everything that we thought when we acquired him, and everything (St. Louis Blues GM) Doug Armstrong said he was, and anyone who’s had him before said he was.”

O’Reilly is a Selke winner, a Conn Smythe winner. O’Reilly allows the Leafs to play John Tavares on the wing after his lack of speed was evident in last year’s seven-game first-round loss to Tampa. But more, O’Reilly can play mean hockey, hard hockey, the right hockey.

“That’s what it takes to win. That’s why you acquire those guys,” Keefe said after Toronto’s 2-1 win in Calgary on Thursday, in which they dominated the third period. “Pucks in question on the wall, you know you’re going to take a big hit, and the puck advances and gets out. I thought O’Reilly (put on) a clinic in the third period in terms of taking care of the game and helping us get the win.”

Toronto needs that defensive discipline from its forwards partly because they have a defence corps that is deeper than it’s ever been, but still lacks a No. 1 horse. It’s how they’re built. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported the Leafs looked in on San Jose’s Erik Karlsson and Nashville’s Mattias Ekholm, the latter of whom landed in Edmonton. They were too expensive, but you could see the appeal. For Toronto, the shutdown pair appears to be T.J. Brodie and the newly acquired Jake McCabe, and the third pair is Mark Giordano and one of the other depth defencemen: Justin Holl, Timothy Liljegren, Erik Gustafsson.

And with Brodie elsewhere, there remains the enduring question of Morgan Rielly. The last two games he’s been paired with Luke Schenn, and Saturday night was a defensive struggle. Rielly wasn’t at fault for the two short-handed goals the Canucks scored to break open Saturday night’s 4-1 Leafs loss: Matthews couldn’t skate with Elias Pettersson on the first, likely due to the injured knee that had taken a shot in the first period, and was at the point when J.T Miller snuck behind him for the 3-1 goal, too.

But Rielly was caught in a pile of odd-man rushes, too. He’s had some injuries, and taken a lot of criticism this year — probably too much. But his game still seems a little uncertain at times, like he is caught in between offence and defence. Saturday night, Rielly had his best five-on-five results while on the ice with O’Reilly versus the other star forwards. But it was a tough evening.

“I think I liked his game the other night (against the Flames),” said Keefe, when asked about Rielly in the Vancouver game. “He doesn’t score the game-winning goal, but it’s his initiative to jump in the rush the way that he did in Calgary that is the difference, ends up helping us win that game, and thought he had some good moments there.

“I think he’s got more to give and can play better, as a lot of our guys can.”

The Leafs had an inconsistent week, and their hope was they would continue to become a stronger, more consistent unit, and Rielly is still a piece of that core. Hell, Tampa is struggling right now — benching star forwards, stud defenceman Victor Hedman injured on Sunday, a no-show against Carolina. They can still flip the switch, probably. The Leafs are trying to build day by day.

But for today, they wait. It’s never easy. It’s the Leafs.

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