St. Patrick’s Day Special: Ryan O’Reilly

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Ryan O’Reilly, the Player

Ryan O’Reilly won the Lady Byng in 2014.

O’Reilly had a career season last year, earning 64 points in 80 games. As we well know, he also earned the Lady Byng Trophy for gentlemanly behavior — and earning only two penalty minutes the entire season.

This season… not so much. He’s already got six times the amount of penalty minutes — only two fewer than Matt Duchene. And unless he suddenly gets red hot, there’s no way he’s earning 64 points — he has 41 points with only 13 games left.

Except… Rhino has been rather toasty recently. He has a respectable 12 points in the last 14 games and no big scoring droughts. Now, to be fair, not a lot of those are goals — just one, actually. However, he’s contributing. His line, with Gabriel Landeskog and first Nathan MacKinnon then a veteran (either Daniel Briere or Alex Tanguay) has been producing a lot.

So, maybe O’Reilly will have a little luck of the Irish. The Avs don’t play again until Thursday, the 19th. However, who says luck has an expiration date?

Next: TBT: O'Reilly and Duchene as Rookies

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