You won't find a harsher critic Ryan O'Reilly than the player himself.
After another loss to his struggling team on Thursday, Nashville Predators– the veteran of the center began a sharp self-assessment.
“I'm the No. 1 center, throwing the puck all over the place, can't make a six-foot pass to save my life,” O'Reilly said after scoring the Predators' lone goal in a 3-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.
“We won't achieve much success if I play so pathetically. This is stupid. I don't know the answer. I 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 contract, has scored a respectable six goals and four assists in 16 games this season. But he can't be happy with the team's results, as the Predators have lost six of their last seven matches and find themselves in sixth place in the Central Division.
While he didn't specify when exactly he had his “one good year,” he was likely referring to the 2018-19 season, when he scored 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 Sabers, Blues, Toronto Maple Leafs and Predators.
The Erie Otters product was also selected to play in three NHL All-Star Games.
“In the last few games I've been making mistakes left and right that I don't usually make. You can't count on such a victory. There is disappointment everywhere.”
