TAMPA -- Morgan Rielly looked as though he'd been beaten up by a number of angry pucks.
There he was, a battered-and-bruised version of himself as he stood in front of the media after his Toronto Maple Leafs' improbable 5-4 comeback overtime victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 4 of their Eastern Conference First Round at Amalie Arena on Monday. A huge shiner was under the left eye of the Toronto defenseman. A similar, yet thankfully smaller welt, was under the right one.
The rigors of Stanley Cup Playoff hockey, live in black and blue.
It was painful to look at him, let alone try to imagine how much he may have been hurting.
Except he wasn't.
"It's just fun," the 29-year-old said. "We're all having fun. It's good to be together.
"This is why you play. So, we're just trying to make the most of it, enjoy it and play hard and compete. That's what we like to do."
Rielly and his teammates are liking it even more these days, given that they lead the best-of-7 series 3-1 heading into Game 5 at what will be a raucous Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Thursday (7 p.m. ET: TBS, CBC, SN, TVAS, BSSUN). At stake: The chance for the Maple Leafs to win their first Stanley Cup Playoff series since defeating the Ottawa Senators in the 2004 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.
As the franchise's longest serving member (10 seasons), the heartache Rielly has endured during so many disappointing Toronto springs has caused him far more pain than a couple of battle-earned contusions on his face.
Selected with the No. 5 pick by Toronto at the 2012 NHL Draft, he is part of a core that includes forwards Auston Matthews, Mitchell Marner and William Nylander that has failed to win a series in six consecutive tries. Magnifying the misery: The past five eliminations have come with the Maple Leafs losing a deciding game.
This time around, there is a "different feel," according to coach Sheldon Keefe, and part of that is because Toronto's best players are performing like its best players, which hasn't always been the case in the postseason.
Heading into play Tuesday, Marner led all NHL playoff scorers with 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in four games. Matthews, whose two goals in the third period of Game 4 sparked the comeback, has seven points (three goals, four assists), as does Nylander (two goals, five assists).
Rielly is right behind them with six (two goals, four assists). And you could make the argument he has been the catalyst of putting the Lightning, who have reached the Stanley Cup Final in each of the past three seasons, on the brink of elimination.
In Toronto's 7-2 victory in Game 2, Rielly led the way with four assists, tying a single-game postseason franchise record for points by a defenseman, previously held by Allan Stanley (Game 5, 1960 Semifinal), Wally Stanowski (Game 5, 1942 Stanley Cup Final) and Ian Turnbull (Game 6, 1976 Quarterfinal).
In Game 3, it was Rielly's winner at 19:15 of overtime against the flow of play that gave Toronto a 4-3 win, which also came in improbable fashion after Ryan O'Reilly tied it with one minute left in the third period.
And Rielly was at it again in Game 4, bringing the Maple Leafs back from a 4-1 deficit in the third. He scored the tying goal with 3:06 left to set the stage for Alexander Kerfoot's winner at 4:14 of overtime.
"We were in a position going into the third down 4-1, that's not where you want to be," Rielly said. "But to have the compete and the jam to go out there and come back is a good sign."
Make no mistake, there have been warts in Rielly's game. He's struggled defensively at times throughout the regular season and in the postseason too.
In the first period Monday, for example, his attempt to keep the puck in Tampa Bay's zone during a Toronto power play was blocked by Lightning forward Brandon Hagel, who gobbled it up and sped down the wing before being tripped by a diving Rielly. Hagel was awarded a penalty shot, which was subsequently stopped by Maple Leafs goalie Ilya Samsonov.
But when it's really mattered, when the games have been on the line, Rielly has stepped up and delivered. It certainly seems as if he's doing everything in his power to change the narrative after Toronto came up short in the previous half-dozen postseasons.
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