After helping Team Canada win the World Cup of Hockey, Ryan O’Reilly was back in the Buffalo Sabres lineup on Wednesday night for the first time this season when his team visited the Carolina Hurricanes.
He did not have a very long night.
O’Reilly left the game in the first period and did not return with what the team called a “lower body injury.” The good news for the Sabres is that at this point it does not sound to be too big of a concern. After the game coach Dan Bylsma said that O’Reilly was held out for the remainder of the game as a precaution, and that he “tweaked something in a muscle.”
The Sabres acquired O’Reilly before the 2015-16 season in a trade with the Colorado Avalanche and gave him a huge long-term contract extension worth $52.5 million over seven years.
One of the best defensive forwards in hockey, O’Reilly also scored 21 goals and recorded 39 assists in 71 games for the Sabres in his first season with the team.