Admirals’ Cal O’Reilly on his time with Milwaukee, fans.
He played his first pro game as an Admiral in 2005 at 19. A thousand games later, Cal O’Reilly reflects on his experience with the franchise and fans.
A year ago, Fedor Svechkov was freshly 21, living nine time zones from home, completing his first season of North American pro hockey and showing the sort of progress everyone in the Nashville Predators organization had hoped from a 2021 first-round draft pick.
He accomplished enough in 2023-24 and at the start of 2024-25 with the Milwaukee Admirals to earn a spot with the Predators and skated in 52 games, scoring 17 points on eight goals and nine assists.
Svechkov also developed a cult following as his personality and wry sense of humor began to show through the language barrier.
Now the Russian is back in Milwaukee and the American Hockey League, earning valuable playoff experience, playing on the first line and making a difference on a team that scrapped its way to a regular-season division title.
“He’s more of a leader right now for us,” Admirals coach Karl Taylor said. “He’s heavier on faceoffs than last year. He was a young kid trying to find his way, and … got beat up with power. He’s in there competing twice as hard this year.
“So there’s growth on his faceoff, growth in how he carries himself, and there’s growth with the expectation. He’s on a No. 1 line. We expect him to produce and score. The other team knows that; they’re going to try to shut him down. He’s going to get the best D pair, the best line. He’s going to stare it down and deal with it. So far, so good.”
The Admirals play the first two games of their round-of-eight playoff series May 15 and 17 on the road against the Texas Stars and then return to finish the best-of-five series at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.
Two days after his overtime goal allowed Milwaukee to advance and two days before its next series begins, Svechkov spoke with reporters after practice May 13.
Here are highlights.
Question: You were up most of the year in Nashville, so how easy or how difficult is it to get in the playoff mode with this group of guys?
Answer: Just a different role for me. I’ve been, like, third-line center in Nashville most of the time, but here I’m the first-line center, and I’m playing much more minutes than I played in Nashville. It’s just different. Obviously different league.
Physically or different mentally, the matchups, the caliber of play, what’s the most different?
It’s obviously a different level … so you just have no guys like MacKinnon or, like, top guns. That’s the difference.
When you come down here, do you try to be Milwaukee’s Nathan MacKinnon? Can you be Milwaukee’s Connor McDavid?
Yeah, but I’m not Connor McDavid.
How difficult was it to come back to the Admirals locker room and get involved?
It was so easy because I knew almost all the guys, and I’ve been here last year, start of this year, and I know the coaches, know all the stuff. And it was pretty easy, like I just came back to my family.
You went through the situation last year, down 2-0 in Texas and came back to win three straight. (After beating Rockford that way,) how crazy is it to do it twice a year apart?
I don’t know. It’s weird, because it kind of seems like it’s our plan. I don’t want to repeat that. I don’t want to be down 2-0 again. Yeah, so it’s cool to get back second year straight, and more important that we’re just still playing.
Both of your goals in Game 5 (against Rockford) were quick, reaction-type plays that you had to make. How did they develop for you?
I don’t know how to answer. I just had the puck and hit it in the net.
How much luck is involved?
It’s a game. Luck, it’s tough because the strongest guy is always more lucky. But sometimes luck… It’s a professional sport, you can say, like, you have no luck. Yeah, we had some luck. We played good, and we just had good timing for all this to happen.
How has your game changed in the course of the past year? In what ways are you better?
Probably faceoffs this year, after I’ve been up there and I’ve practiced a lot.
(At this point, line-mates Ozzy Wiesblatt and Kiefer Bellows walked past, distracting Svechkov and giving him a hard time about the attention he was receiving.)
I feel like (we have a) little bit more chemistry than last year, because it’s my second year with Ozzy in the line, and we pretty much understand each other on the ice. … And Kiefer is a good piece for a strong shooting winger who can score. I think we just previously had maybe … a top line where all the guys are so skilled but not really physical (and) I think all three of us are pretty physical, and we can play all kinds of hockey.
How about beyond hockey, just your comfort level with the rest of life here now that you’re a year older, you’ve been here for a year, you’ve been in a different city as well?
Much more comfortable because I can speak English right now a little bit and can talk to my teammates. I didn’t talk to them at all. I’m a little bit kidding, but yeah, it’s just easier to figure it out, all the questions off the ice – apartments and stuff – because you already know what was going on. So it’s easier, just more outside of the hockey.
Are you tired?
No. Am I looking like (I am)?
Just asking. It’s been a long year.
All good. We want to play till the 27th of June.
Coaches and GMs always talk about getting young players such as yourself playoff experience. What is it about playoff hockey that’s so important to players developing?
I feel like it’s different competition level, and all mistakes, you pay more price. If you have a mistake it means more than in the regular season. So you gotta play the right way but still be yourself. It’s like a little balance between this. So perfect game when you have no mistakes, and you’re making plays right. It’s just different level of (pressure not to make) mistakes.