There may be no hockey player more critical of himself than Ryan O’Reilly.
Look no further than the Nashville Predators’ 3-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Nov. 6, after which O’Reilly delivered raw commentary on his own play to reporters at Bridgestone Arena.
“The number one center and I turn the puck over everywhere,” O’Reilly said. “(I) can’t make a six-foot pass to save my life. Not going to have much success if I’m playing pathetic like that.”
O’Reilly scored the first goal of the game for Nashville (5-7-4, 14 points), but the Predators‘ offense couldn’t get anything else by Flyers’ goalie Dan Vladar, who is now 5-0-1 against Nashville in his career. The Predators were held to just three shots in the third period, chasing the game until Travis Konecny’s empty net goal sealed a win for Philadelphia.
Struggles against a hot goaltender boiled over into wholesale self-criticism from O’Reilly.
“I don’t know the answer. I’ve had one good year in my career and I don’t have any answer, that’s for sure,” he said.
O’Reilly signed a four-year, $18 million contract with the Predators in 2023, the first summer under general manager Barry Trotz. His two-way abilities from the center position and his unassailable “lead-by-example” mindset were what Trotz wanted when bringing him to Nashville.
In 1,168 career games, O’Reilly has totaled 834 points, but now the Predators’ assistant captain has no answers for the team’s offensive woes.
“It’s nice having the puck in the offensive zone, but if you don’t win games it’s disappointing. You’re pissed off. We want to win games, it’s as simple as that. Yeah it’s better than defending the whole time, but I’d rather defend the whole time and win the game than the other way around,” O’Reilly said.
This season, O’Reilly is tied for the team lead in goals (6) with Filip Forsberg and second to Forsberg in points (10). But hearing him after the loss to the Flyers, you’d think he was scoreless in the team’s first 15 games.
“The last few games, I’ve been making mistakes left and right,” he said. “You can’t expect to win like that. There’s frustration everywhere. Guys are working, a lot of guys are working. You do what you can. It falls on leadership and we have to be the ones to get over it.”
The Predators have now lost three straight games for the third time this season. Next up, they host the Dallas Stars on Nov. 8 (2:30 p.m. CT, FanDuel Sports Network).
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.