"I appreciate the compliment," Rielly said with a laugh Friday. "But you want to keep getting better."
Rielly will have a chance to do that in Game 2 of the best-of-7 series here on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVA Sports, CSN-DC).
\[RELATED: Complete Maple Leafs vs. Capitals series coverage\]
It speaks to the youth and talent of the Maple Leafs that Rielly is rarely mentioned as one of their young up-and-coming players anymore. They have a bountiful crop of rookies led by center Auston Matthews, 19, the No. 1 pick of the 2016 NHL Draft; forward Mitchell Marner, 19, the No. 4 pick of the 2015 draft; and forward William Nylander, 20, the No. 8 pick of the 2014 draft.
Rielly is sort of an old young talent. He's a four-year NHL veteran. But he's still only 23, and he was the No. 5 pick of the 2012 draft. After 312 regular-season games, he experienced his first playoff game just like Matthews, Marner and Nylander did.
Babcock said Rielly was "really solid" in 24:24 of ice time in Game 1, third most among the Maple Leafs, keeping tight gaps, boxing out, winning battles, breaking out well. Rielly iced down his bruises, talked to his teammates, took the bus back to the hotel, ate a late meal and replayed the game with his mental DVR.
"I mean, there's a lot going through your head between the bus ride and the meal," Rielly said. "You're thinking about the game. You're thinking about mostly what you did wrong and where you can improve."
Rielly saw little things in his head most of us don't see live or on television. The Capitals are a good faceoff team. Forward Alex Ovechkin, the great goal-scorer, likes to line up in what is called an offset, behind the puck. Rielly said the Maple Leafs have to do a better job as a five-man unit of recognizing it and adjusting their plan to get the puck out of the zone.
After his late meal, Rielly watched the Anaheim Ducks' 3-2 victory over the Calgary Flames in Game 1 of the Western Conference First Round. He started to think about what the Maple Leafs did right. Washington likes to use the stretch pass to spring its speedy forwards, and Toronto defended it well. At their best, the Maple Leafs broke out of their zone quickly, keeping the Capitals from playing offense.