UPDATE: 3/29 – The streak is over. O’Reilly picked up his first penalty of the season on Saturday afternoon. He was given two minutes for playing with a broken stick.
The penalty box is practically a second home for some NHL players. For Ryan O’Reilly, it’s an area of the arena he isn’t very familiar with as he hasn’t spent any time in the sin bin this season. Through 71 games, O’Reilly has zero penalty minutes. O’Reilly has to behave for just nine more games in order to have a perfect, well-behaved season.
According to the Avalanche, O’Reilly is the first player since 1980-81 (Butch Goring) to skate in a minimum of 70 games without taking a penalty. The possibility of playing in an entire season without a single penalty minute is especially impressive when you consider previous Lady Byng winners have had significantly higher totals. Most recently, Martin St. Louis won the award with a total of 14 penalty minutes – a mark which was considered ridiculously low at the time.
Does O’Reilly care about a penalty-free season? Not really.
“I couldn’t care less as long as we win.”
