Why Predators' Ryan O'Reilly called himself 'garbage' after loss

Don’t tell Ryan O’Reilly he’s been the Nashville Predators’ most important player all season.

Especially after what happened between the Predators and Utah Mammoth on Jan. 24.

“I’ve been garbage,” O’Reilly said. “Just losing battles, not winning many face-offs. … I’ve got to be better.”

That self-criticism comes after Nashville (24-23-4, 52 points) lost an early lead to Utah (27-20-4, 58 points), conceding three straight goals to the Mammoth in the second period. Then, unlike their previous win against the Senators on Jan. 22, the Predators couldn’t mount a comeback, falling 5-2 at Bridgestone Arena.

“The second period, it got away from us. Especially because it’s my job to be harder against their top line,” O’Reilly explained. “They had a couple of big goals there. That’s a couple games in a row, myself and my line haven’t played the other top lines the way we need to.”

There’s some truth in what O’Reilly claims about the latest loss. The Predators’ top line with O’Reilly, Filip Forsberg and Luke Evangelista were out-dueled by the Mammoth’s top line with Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz and Kailer Yamamoto. The latter scored twice in the second period to flip the game, then prevented the Predators from a counter punch in the third.

“My line, we can’t feed their top players,” O’Reilly said. “And that’s what we did. It caught up to us, it caught up to myself. I was getting a little lucky there for a bit, so it’s back to reality. It’s hard work. Have to get back to doing what I do, defending and hard work on the right side of the puck.”

Setting this loss aside, O’Reilly’s importance to the Predators this season cannot be understated. He’s led Nashville in scoring nearly all season, currently with 50 points in 51 games. He’s also their most skilled center and unquestioned leader at the forward position.

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Of course, this self-degradation is nothing new for O’Reilly. On Nov. 6, after a 3-1 loss to the Philadephia Flyers, O’Reilly claimed he’d “only had one good year in his career” and “couldn’t make a six-foot pass to save his life.”

After that, O’Reilly scored 40 points in 34 games to lead the Predators right back into the playoff race. Nashville is currently three points out of the final wild card spot, despite being in last place in the Western Conference on Nov. 25.

Alex Daugherty is the Predators beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Alex atjdaugherty@gannett.com. Follow Alex on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @alexdaugherty1. Also check out our Predators exclusive Instagram page @tennessean_preds.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why Predators’ Ryan O’Reilly called himself ‘garbage’ after loss to Utah

Why Predators’ Ryan O’Reilly called himself ‘garbage’ after loss

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