You won’t find a tougher critic of Ryan O’Reilly than the player himself.
After another loss for his struggling team on Thursday, the Nashville Predators’ veteran centre launched into a scathing self-evaluation.
“For myself, No. 1 centre, turn the puck over everywhere, can’t make a six-foot pass to save my life,” O’Reilly said after he scored the Predators’ lone goal in a 3-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.
“We’re not going to have much success if I’m playing pathetic like that. It’s stupid. I don’t know the answer. I’ve had one good year in my career. I don’t have an answer, that’s for sure.”
O’Reilly, in the third season of a four-year, $18-million deal, has a respectable six goals and four assists in 16 games this season. But he can’t be happy about the team results as the Predators have lost six of their past seven to fall into sixth in the Central Division.
While he didn’t specify when his “one good year” was, the best guess would be he was referring to 2018-19 when he had a career-high 77 points and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP with the Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues.
It’s not like O’Reilly has been terrible in many other seasons, though. He has 834 points in 1,168 career games with the Colorado Avalanche, Buffalo Sabres, Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs and Predators.
The Erie Otters product also has been selected for three NHL All-Star Games.
“The last few games, I’ve been making mistakes left and right that I normally don’t do. You can’t expect to win like that. It’s frustration everywhere.”
