'Boy, he's a nice find' - Mike Reilly has been just what the Bruins have needed on blue line

It shouldn't have come as much of a surprise that any whispers of trade rumors surrounding Nashville Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm this season usually had the Boston Bruins at the forefront of a potential sweepstakes.

For as much as acquiring top-six scoring talent has been an omnipresent need for this Bruins club year after year, the 2021 campaign brought a new set of circumstances — with the departures of both Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug, a slew of injuries and the expected growing pains from youngsters like Jeremy Lauzon and Jakub Zboril prompting the B's to scour a largely barren market of available blueliners for help on the backend.

On paper, via the eye test, through analytics — you name it, Ekholm certainly seemed like the answer to most of Boston's troubles on defense: A minutes-eating veteran capable of not only shoring up a top-four spot and potentially keeping a 5v5 buzzsaw of a pairing in Matt Grzelcyk and Charlie McAvoy intact, but also able to drive play at even strength through a sound transition game and with a bevy of pucks fired in from the point.

Alas, with the once-rudderless Predators surging up the Central Division standings, any chances of Nashville selling off key assets like Ekholm dissipated in short order — prompting Boston to look elsewhere for solutions on the blue line.

Said solution ended up being Mike Reilly — who, either due to his previous team (the lowly Senators) or the more high profile blue-line targets linked to Boston over the last year (Ekholm and Oliver Ekman-Larsson) flew under the radar when Boston parted ways with a 2022 third-round pick to pry him from Ottawa on Sunday night.

Now, granted, Reilly doesn't boast nearly the same resume as established names like Ekman-Larsson or Ekholm, and while his playdriving metrics with Ottawa have surged over the past 12 months, skepticism was warranted when it came to just how the 27-year-old blueliner would adjust to moving to a new system in Boston after thriving on a very bad Sens roster.

But through two games with his new club, Reilly has been far more than just a depth option to a D corps taking on water. So far, he's been everything that Boston has needed on the backend — and more.

"Short sample size, but boy — he's a nice find for us," Bruce Cassidy said of Reilly following Boston's 4-1 win over the Islanders. "Not only because of our predicament back there where we've got some guys hurt. But just in general — he's a nice add."



Despite rolling out a defense still missing three key cogs in Brandon Carlo, Kevan Miller and Grzelcyk, Boston's blue line rarely labored on Thursday night against the Islanders. Granted, they didn't have to exert themselves all that much, given that most of their minutes were spent hovering around the offensive blue line as Boston routinely peppered Semyon Varlamov throughout the contest — with Boston holding a commanding 40-13 edge in scoring chances in the decisive victory.

Reilly, who finished just behind Charlie McAvoy in ice time (23:12), played a major part in that lopsided share of O-zone time, with the defenseman both generating Grade-A looks off of a volley of shots and moving the puck out of the D-zone in a hurry thanks to some crisp passing. In total, during the 15:57 of 5v5 ice time that Reilly logged, the Bruins held a 26-9 edge in shot attempts, a 17-3 advantage in scoring chances and most importantly, a 1-0 edge in goals scored.

Reilly, who attempted five shots on goal in the win, generated that tally off of simply finding a shooting lane up high and letting it fly — with the shot bouncing off of a couple of bodies before a ricochet via Brad Marchand opened the scoring just 1:49 into the contest. Getting pucks through from the blue line might seem like a simple principle when it comes to basic offense generation, but it's been an area that Boston has labored with this season, especially with its younger skaters.

But Reilly seems to have developed a knack for it, a wrinkle of his game reinforced by his lofty scoring totals for a defenseman (20 assists in 42 games).

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But in Cassidy's eyes, perhaps the most encouraging aspect of Reilly's game has been his play leading up to Boston's extended O-zone possessions, with the defenseman helping to orchestrate breakouts from the D-zone and carrying the puck through neutral-zone ice with ease throughout Thursday's win. Reilly's vision nearly generated a highlight-reel goal in the second period, with the newcomer threading a pass from just to the right of Tuukka Rask that sprung Brad Marchand and David Krejci on a 2-on-1 rush that only fizzled out due to a clutch stop from Varlamov on a one-time bomb from the B's pivot.

Even though Boston already has a couple of adept puck-movers on the blue line in both McAvoy and Grzelcyk, Reilly gives the B's another useful tool on its D corps, with Reilly's transition prowess giving Cassidy the freedom to slot him next to a more stay-at-home presence in Carlo once he returns from IR, and potentially allow Boston's bench boss to roll out that Grzelcyk-McAvoy duo again without sacrificing playmaking further down on the depth chart.

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"Stuff we've been lacking all year from the group as a whole on a consistent basis," Cassidy said of Reilly's puck moving and shot generation. "Certainly Matt Grzelcyk gives us that when he's healthy. I see some similarities in their game. They're good puck movers, they get it up in a hurry. It's on and off their stick. They may beat one guy and then it's gone. O-zone blue line — they're fairly quick with their decision making, just a bigger version. So those guys are valuable in today's game, especially now with our forward group healthy.

"We've got some wingers that can get off and get moving. We've tried to stretch them out a little more, so he's going to help that part of the game and he seems to be a good defender. I haven't noticed him getting in lot of trouble."

Of course, the first priority is just getting healthy bodies back and ready for what will be a grueling playoff slate in the next few months. But, even with half of their regulars on the backend out of commission, Boston's D corps has fared awfully well since the trade deadline came and went on Monday.

And a lot of that has had to do with Reilly – a player that most Bruins fans likely didn't even knew of prior to the deadline. Fair to say, he's made quite the first impression.

"A good solid game," Cassidy said. "I thought we didn't let our foot off the gas. We were able to extend the lead. ... I liked our game all around, really had no passengers tonight. It's always what you're looking for  — everyone kind of helping the team win and I thought we got that tonight."