Ryan O'Reilly will not play tonight for the Buffalo Sabres.
O'Reilly departed Friday night's game with a what Dan Bylsma called reaggravation of an existing injury.
At the 3:49 juncture of the third period, O'Reilly's game ended.
His teammates sure could have used O'Reilly's face off prowess and his keen play making abilities in the the third period. The Sabres were trying to milk a 1-0 lead at the time of ROR's injury.
The Devils tied the game on a screen shot that forced overtime. Twenty nine second into OT, the referee lost his mind when he awarded an early Christmas gift when he gave Andy Greene a penalty shot. Evander Kane had text book back check pressure on Greene. Kane may have obstructed Greene, however, he did not pull the man down while he was in the act of shooting the puck. Therefore, the ref wrongly and inadvertently awarded a penalty shot.
TRhe Sabres lost 2-1.
After the game, Bylsma said that O'Reilly felt good enough before the game and ruled himself able to play against the Devils. O'Reilly was forced to sit out Buffalo's 2-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday. Bylsma would not elaborate on the injury only to say that ROR would be re-evaluated on Saturday.
To my untrained eye, it looked to me like O'Reilly was experiencing a flair up of his recent back ailment that sidelined him in training camp. O'Reilly played for Team Canada at the World Cup of Hockey. ROR reported late to Sabres due to the key role he played on Team Canada's World Cup gold medal winning team.
O'Reilly suffered back spasms in the days leading up to the season opener versus Montreal.
My guess is that ROR is experiencing back spasms. Only rest and recovery can heal back spasms.
O'Reilly can sit out Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. The Sabres don't play again until Tuesday night in St. Louis.
O'Reilly leads all NHL centers with 21:46 TOI. He has 4 goals and 5 assists in 12 games played.
O'Reilly leads all NHL centers by winning a sensational 60.5% of his face offs. This is based on 300+ face offs taken.
The Sabres enter tonight's action ranked second in the NHL with 54% faceoff wins. Anaheim are 58%.
Sabres defenseman Dmitry Kulikov will also sit out his second game in a row.
Kulikov will once again be replaced by Justin Falk.
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