Colorado Avalanche
Ryan O’Reilly: “We’re going to have some fun and we’re going to beat them”
The Avalanche-Blues series hasn’t even begun, and we already have some prime bulletin-board material for Avs players to stare at for the next three days, courtesy of former Avs forward Ryan O’Reilly.
Here is what O’Reilly said tonight to Blues reporters via Zoom, after St. Louis beat Minnesota in their season finale:
O'Reilly on Colorado: "We know that they have a lot of talent over there and they work hard. But for us, it's an exciting challenge. We're going to have some fun and we're going to beat them." #stlblues
— Jeremy Rutherford (@jprutherford) May 14, 2021
Well, this series just got a lot more contentious.
Hey, ROR can boast. He’s won a Stanley Cup and a Conn Smythe Trophy. He almost single-handedly beat the Avs in a game a couple weeks ago in St. Louis.
But we’ll see who laughs last in this one.
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The Blues will be a good test for the Avs.. and maybe we should thank O’Reilly for this. Because, honestly, I don’t think the Avs really see themselves as favorites over anyone, even with the president’s trophy in the bag. I think they have made that mistake too many times before!
This will be the toughest first round opponent these Avs have faced by far. Much harder than Nashville (2018), Calgary (2019), or Arizona (2020 in the bubble). Are they up for it? I hope so. They were patting themselves on the back after two 7-1 wins over the ‘Yotes last year and then they ran into Dallas. Goaltending aside, they had a 1 goal lead with 3 minutes to go in game 7 against the Stars last year. Winning the cup takes a lot of grit, like overcoming the Forsberg loss in the LA series. Does this team have what… Read more »
Nashville was a much better team than this version of the Blues.. They were a juggernaut.. The 2021 Blues are a good team but nowhere near as good as the SC winning team of 2 years ago.. Their record doesn’t lie.. If Binnington doesn’t play all world in nets, the Avs will roll the Blues in 5.. Write it down..
He had a hatty in one game this year against the Avs, where was he in the 8-0 game? So what that he has won in the past it has no relevance in this years playoffs
Regular season records have no relevance either. Gunna be a good series.
it was a BS hatty too. one goal was Towes own-goal credited to ROR and the last was an ENG.
I really don’t see this as that big of bulletin board material. What is he supposed to say? “Well they’re a really good team, so we’ll just show up when needed and start looking at golf vacations in two weeks.”? Seriously, people read too much into these things saying it’s a “guarantee” or something like that. He’s the captain of his team, they won a Cup a couple of years ago, he’s got confidence, and so he’s expressing that. Guarantee if you ask any of the Avs the same question without this quote as a context you would probably get… Read more »
Agree. He has nothing to lose in saying something this as the Blues are the clear underdog in this first round match-up. Besides it isn’t all that unusual in professional sports anymore for guys to say things like this ahead of a playoff series or game. Statements like this aren’t as print-worthy as they were years ago.
Exactly what I was going to say, Matt. The only bulletin board his remarks will go on are Adrian Dater’s. Now, if he had said something like they’re going to steamroll and beat the sh*t out of us in 4 because we suck so bad and don’t even to skate on the same ice as those boys, I think the Avs might be worried that they have to guard against being overconfident playing against a team that is feeling no pressure because they are just happy to be here.
Oh, I think his words will find a way onto the Avs’ board too.
Great player and great competitor. Avs made a mistake to let him go. But they chose to keep Duchene at that time. Oh well.
In hindsight they should have kept ROR over Duchene but this team isn’t what it is today without the way things went down. I say screw both those dudes because I like this team better than any others built around these two.
Hell yes Pete!!!!