O’REILLY REKINDLES LOVE FOR THE GAME

Once-frustrated Sabres captain nothing but smiles now after his trade to the Blues

What was the phrase he had used?

That he’d lost his love for the game? That he’d become OK with losing?

Had Ryan O’reilly actually said those things?

Watching him on Stanley Cup final media day, a gap-toothed smile permanently splashed across his bearded face, it’s impossible to imagine O’reilly having anything close to a bad day at the rink. Then again, it’s easy to be happy when you’re not getting your teeth kicked in every night.

“Winning is fun,” said the St. Louis Blues centre. “It’s the best part of the game. Losing is tough. It’s not what you want. It’s amazing a year ago how different the mindset was.”

A year ago, there were no smiles. Back then the Buffalo Sabres earned the dubious distinction of being the first team in NHL history to finish 31st overall. And as the team’s captain, who had missed the playoffs for the seventh time in eight years (including his time in Colorado), O’reilly put the blame squarely on his shoulders.

He was defeated. He was done. The mental wear and tear of repeatedly losing — and the lack of hope with a rebuild that seemed to be forever under construction — had damaged him in ways that seemed irreparable.

“I feel, throughout the year,

I’ve lost the love the game,” O’reilly said during an exit interview following the 2017-18 season. “Multiple times.”

That bombshell confession, along with admitting he and the rest of the Sabres had adopted a mindset of “being OK with losing,” ultimately forced general manager Jason Botterill’s hand into removing the team’s captain.

On July 1, O’reilly was traded from Buffalo to St. Louis in a move that smacked of addition by subtraction.

Except, right now the only team that seems to have benefitted from the trade is the Blues.

While Buffalo finished this season in 13th place in the Eastern Conference, St. Louis is four wins away from winning its first championship. And it’s in large part because of O’reilly, who after leading the team in scoring in the regular season has continued to produce in the playoffs with 14 points in 19 games.

“I remember that phone call,” O’reilly said of being told that he was traded last summer.

“I remember talking to (Blues GM Doug Armstrong) and just saying, ‘Thank you for bringing me in. Let’s go win a Cup.’ I remember that. I knew the team and played with two guys on the team and looked up to the rest (of the players). I was excited. I just thought from Day 1 that this was a team that had a chance.”

At times, O’reilly thought the same of the Sabres. That’s why he signed a seven-year extension to stay in Buffalo, where there seemed to be so much hope around a team that included Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart and, at one time, Evander Kane. But it was a case of unfulfilled potential.

When asked if he had any doubts about adding a player who had temporarily lost his love for the game, Armstrong said, “That honestly gave me zero pause.”

“When you’re part of an organization that’s not having success, you probably — he was speaking from the heart,” said the Blues GM. “He was frustrated.”

Since coming to St. Louis, O’reilly’s been the solution

— not the so-called problem.

I remember talking to

(Blues GM Doug Armstrong) and just saying, ‘Thank you for bringing me in. Let’s go win a Cup.’

“He’s obviously been our best player arguably all year long,” said head coach Craig Berube.

And while he’s on a much better team overall, it’s easy to forget the St. Louis were last in the standings on Jan. 2.

Had that been Buffalo, the Sabres might have thrown up the white towel and given up.

Instead, led by O’reilly’s 77 points, the Blues battled back and ended up with the fourthmost points in the conference.

“It’s two different situations,” O’reilly said of the Blues versus the Sabres. “Here, having an established core and coming into that and to a team that was very close to the edge of being one game out of the playoffs, they know what their identity is. The year before (in Buffalo), I think it was tough. If I knew then what I know now, things maybe could have been different. I believe that. I learned a lot from being around this group and how difficult it is and how hard it is to compete for that identity.”

O’reilly smiled. His love for the game was back, all right.