ROR Canada's player of the game and future captain @BuffaloSabres pic.twitter.com/ZmtoixCm4L
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) May 20, 2017
Tomorrow, Ryan O'Reilly and Team Canada will face Team Sweden for the IIHF gold medal.
O'Reilly could have easily flushed the call from Team Canada management to his cell phone. It's become an annual occurrence for O'Reilly. When your NHL club team fails to make the Stanley Cup playoffs, your services are required at the IIHF World Championships.
I can tell you from my experience in covering the NHL for over 20 years, very few players appreciate getting the call to represent their country at the biggest international hockey tournament in the world. Some NHLers will hide behind preexisting injury excuses. Others will beg off due to family commitments. Others just forward the Team Canada phone call go their agent to deal with so that they can go drown their sorrows in Vegas with the boys.
Not O'Reilly. That's not how he rolls.
He's a worker, a giver and an over achiever. O'Reilly demands greatness from himself first. When he is giving less than his best to his Buffalo Sabres teammates and coaches, he is a miserable snook. He hates losing. He despises corner-cutting and excuse making.
In 71 games in 2015-16, O'Reilly scored 21 goals and added 39 assists for 60 points.
ROR popped 12 goals at even strength and 8 on the PP.
This past season in Buffalo, ROR scored 20 goals and 35 assists.
O'Reilly led Buffalo in face off win percentage with 58% this season. ditto last season when he won 56.5% of his draws.
ROR led all forwards in TOI the past two season (21:27 and 21:44, respectively).
At the 2017 IIHF Worlds, O'Reilly hasn't disappointed. He has scored 5 goals (3 PPG) and 3 assists on 28 shots on goal. He leads the tourney with an amazing 70% faceoff win percentage. His puck possession and defensive instincts have been outstanding, to say nothing of his offensive explosion. New Buffalo Sabres GM Jason Botterill raved about the fact that he already has two monster centers on his roster in Jack Eichel and Ryan O'Reilly which is very high praise from an executive who spent the past ten seasons with Sid and Geno in Pittsburgh.
O'Reilly is a leader of men. He is a perfectionist.
Botterill would be wise to sew a "C" on O'Reilly's sweater as soon as possible.
That in no way is a slight to Eichel. It's a huge compliment to O'Reilly who takes seriously his mentoring of his Sabres teammates both young and old.
Leaders like O'Reilly lead from the front.
He's the most positive professional athlete that I have ever covered. He doesn't talk to you in bumper sticker cliches. He's the real McCoy. Blood and guts honest and transparent.
Rather than pack his luxury SUV with his skates, sticks and equipment bag and head to his luxury cottage on the lake in Clinton, Ontario or Muskoka like many of his NHL peers, ROR accepted the opportunity to cleanse the crappy taste from his mouth after another failed season in Buffalo that saw Tim Murray and Dan Bylsma get fired last month.
O'Reilly not only took the call but he promised Team Canada management that he would be the best leader and teammate he could be. He told them it didn't matter which line he played on or what his role is.
He accepted accountability and vowed to do his best to help another gold medal like Canada had done in 2016 and 2015.
O'Reilly and Canada will now play the winner of tonight's Sweden-Finland grudge match looking for their golden hat trick.
O'Reilly scored the game winning goal in the third period against Russia, who built a convincing 2-0 lead after 40 minutes of play.
With 3:02 remaining in regulation time, ROT potted a loose puck off a scramble from the Andrei Vasilevskiy's goal mouth.
Nathan MacKinnon had tied the game just two minutes earlier. He lost control of a pass in the slot, but no sooner had Vladimir Tkachyov gained control of the puck than MacKinnon stripped him of it and fired a low shot all in one motion, beating Andrei Vasilevski to the short side.
Philadelphia Flyers center Sean Couturier added an empty net goal with 1:07 remaining to seal Russia's fate.
The first period was scoreless and cautious, far more so than most games between these great rivals. But that caution was abandoned in the second, in large measure because of four Canadian penalties.
Canada's four goal third period comeback began just 17 seconds into the final period on a power play that had carried over from the second.O'Reilly took Vasilevskiy's eyes away while Nathan MacKinnon hit Mark Scheifele in the slot. Scheifele's tip found the back of the net.
ROR has told me many times: "They don't ask how. They ask how many" #Gospel #GDUB https://t.co/37Aqn2bJFO
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) May 20, 2017
O'Reilly, Scheifele and Marner named players of the tournament for @HC_Men as chosen by the coaching staff #ROR #LeaderOfMen
— SabresBuzz (@SabresBuzz) May 20, 2017
**
With Canada's win over Russia, the Buffalo Sabres are now one skate stride closer to adding Russian defenseman Viktor Antipin to their lineup.
Antipin is now free to sign with Buffalo now that his Team Russia commitments have been met. Last month he was granted release from his KHL club team.
The Sabres finished 19th overall in goals against with 2.28 GAA and 231 total goals against. Dan Due to injuries and inconsistency on the blue line, Dan Bylsma was forced to have to play 12 different defenseman this season, some of which were raw AHLers who acquitted them selves rather well playing while under duress. The 22 different defensemen accumulated a pathetic -71 +/- rating. Dmitry Kulikov represent -26 of the -71 debacle.
The Sabres need to add three more NHL playing D.
The great news is that too organizational D prospect Brendan Guhle will be a full time player in Buffalo come September. Guhle impressed in the three game emergency call up he performed in back in November and December. Guhle' junior hockey days are done and he is more than ready for prime time in the NHL next season.
Dmitry Kulikov and Cody Franson are on exiting fess and won't be back in Buffalo. Taylor Fedun is also UFA.
Rasmus Ristolainen, Jake McCabe and Zach Bogosian were forced to play extreme TOI per game to keep the bottom three D off the ice against opponent's top six forwards in late stages of close games. At the end of the season, Ristolainen, McCabe and Bogosian were fatigued from their elevated time on ice. Ristolainen averaged 26:28 TOI while McCabe are 20:52 TOI and Bogosian worked 20:05 TOI per game. Josh Gorges, 32, was forced to have to play 18 minutes per game which proved to be too much ice time for the veteran defender.
Buffalo's next head coach has to find balance in his D corps and distribute TOI evenly so as to avoid fatigue and exhaustion of key blue liners.
Tim Murray spent his final ten months as Sabres GM scouring the NHL for trade partners. Murray needed D in the worst way and could not promote difference making kids from AHL Rochester because there is such a lack of depth in the defense prospect pool. Murray's Waterloo in Buffalo was that he over stocked the offensive side of the puck at the expense of the defensive side of the biscuit. Too many forwards, not enough D. A recipe for disaster manifested itself in Buffalo in 2016-17.
Did Murray really needed to invest his 2016 8th overall pick in slick forward Alex Nylander when he could have easily snagged D men of distinction in Jakob Chychrun or Mikhail Sergachev?
Murray shanked that pick.
I love Nylander's high skill set and his unlimited ceiling, however, the Sabres needed a difference Nanking Be d, not another skilled forward.
Murray and the representatives for Antipin, the in high demand Russian free agent D-man, continued to speak about the talented rear guard leaving Russia for Buffalo.
Antipin was first linked to the Sabres by Elliotte Friedman in March. It appears to be close to signing a contract with the Sabres. Perhaps this upcoming week as the IIHF World Championships tournament gold medal game is about to be played.
Antipin, 24, a left shot D, already plays a man's game in the KHL. He reminds me a lot of a left shot Sami Vatanen in that he skates well, defends superbly and is not shy about joining the rush and getting sandy in the battles in front of his net and along the walls . Antipin thrives at even strength and in the power play. Buffalo are owners of thevNHL's number one rated PP in 2016-17. Having Antipin QB PP2 will only create more blunt force trauma for opponents to have to deal with next season.
Antipin scored 24 points (6G, 18A) in 59 games played (+10) with Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL this season.
Antipin also added 11 points (7G, 4A) in 18 playoff games. Antipin was named the top defensive player in the KHL Finals (Gagarin Cup) where his team was eliminated by Pavel Datsyuk, Ilya Kovalchuk and CSKA Saint Petersburg.
***
I've encountered many a black day in my lifetime.
I've always had friends and family around me to help ease the burden in my hands.
Though I never met him personally, I considered Chris Cornell a "friend
Cornell's compositions have moved me to my core.
His imagery, metaphors, rage-soaked lyrics and raw emotions have always helped me to make sense of my life during my times of vulnerability and despair.
I've been a huge Cornell fan for the past 28 years.
I loved Cornell's work with Soundgarden and Temple of The Dog.
What I loved most about him was his poetry that he created while sober for the past fourteen years. I absolutely devoured Cornell and Audioslave. I then fell in love with his solo works and his brilliant cover songs.
I have cried a million times while listening to Chris Cornell's artwork. In the past six years, I endured several deaths in my family. Each loss cut me to my core. Cornell's brilliant music served as medicine for my soul as I learned to reconcile the deaths of my beloved grandparents and my beautiful young niece. I needed Chris Cornell more than ever two summers ago when my wing man and neighbor inexplicable committed suicide. Each time, Cornell's searing lyrics and four octave pipe organ voice assisted me in the healing process.
I was fortunate to have seen Cornell play live in concert twice with Soundgarden and twice live on his one man show solo tour.
I never thought in a million years that Chris Cornell would succumb to the sadness, grief and depression that plagued him since his adolescence. I always saw Cornell as a survivor and a mentor for folks like myself who have had struggles. He was an every man to me. A guy who had seen the darkness and was now rebranding his life to that of a guide, so to speak. Listen to his lyrics and poetry. They are hopeful. They tell cautionary tales. They remind us of how fragile life and love really are. Cornell taught me and millions of loyal fans that living with anxiety and depression is normal. He debunked the myth that mental health is a weakness. He was a legit voice for a whole generation of people who are growing up with challenges that are not physical in nature.
He gave us a voice. A beautiful voice with a four octave range.
We are sick, not weak.
I love you, Chris.