Sheldon Keefe seemingly calls out Morgan Rielly

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been anything but healthy this season, especially on the blue line. They've been without the services of Jake Muzzin, who has been on LTIR for most of the year. Meanwhile, veteran Morgan Rielly has also missed a significant chunk of time, though he's recently made his return to the lineup. 

But right now, it's taken him a bit to get going. And according to head coach Sheldon Keefe, Rielly is still looking to fine tune points of his game. 

"I think he is still trying to find his game," Keefe said. "Whether it is the physical part of it getting back in and the knee being strong and all of that — I think he has passed all of those tests and feels good with that, but getting back into the rhythm of his play hasn’t quite been there on both sides of the puck. We want to continue to work with him on that and be patient at the same time."

During Toronto'a most recent practice session, Rielly was paired with Timothy Liljegren, something Keefe chalked up to the normal routine of players coming in and out of the lineup. But hopefully, it will get Rielly going. 

"It has been a bit of a rotation there mostly due to injuries and guys coming and going from the lineup," Keefe explained. "If Sandin is going to be out, Lily loses his partner as well. It is a little bit more natural for those guys to pair together. We were reluctant to split up Giordano-Holl and Sandin-Liljegren pairings. We really like them. We thought it was important to have that stability in the Boston game."

"That change allows us to look at some different things. I think Lily has done a really good job — no matter who he has been paired with — of just playing his game. You can see him getting really comfortable in the league, with who he is, and how he needs to play."

The Leafs are back in action tonight at Scotiabank Arena against the visiting Florida Panthers.