PITTSBURGH – Ryan O’Reilly is the latest new face to walk through Team Canada’s door with the World Cup fast approaching.
He may not be the last.
The reality of holding a best-on-best tournament straight out of the summer is that you’re bound to get some injuries. The Canadians are still nursing a few. Matt Duchene came away from Tuesday’s practice with a minor undisclosed issue while Claude Giroux had a “maintenance day” on Monday following a summer where he had hip surgery.
In the case of Tyler Seguin, he attempted to play through some discomfort in his right ankle during training camp before ultimately deciding to remove himself from the event on Tuesday. Team Canada didn’t waste any time before summoning a replacement.
“They called and said: ‘How quickly can you get to Pittsburgh?”’ said O’Reilly. “So I ended up driving down last night.”
He arrived a little after 1 a.m. and will dress in Wednesday’s final pre-tournament game against Russia. Giroux had originally been listed as the forward scratch for that one, but the plan changed after Duchene suffered a “little bump,” according to head coach Mike Babcock.
The team is clearly juggling a couple different issues while facing a Friday deadline to solidify the final 23-man roster. No replacements can be added once the World Cup officially gets underway on Saturday.
As a result, O’Reilly was given some advance warning that he was on standby from general manager Doug Armstrong.
It was an unfortunate outcome for Seguin, who spent the summer working his way back from a variety of issues that stemmed from having his right Achilles tendon cut in March. He dressed for just one playoff game with the Dallas Stars in the spring and had been looking forward to his Team Canada debut in a best-on-best event.
“Obviously, (he’s) disappointed, he said to us ‘you know, I haven’t been very truthful,”’ said Babcock. “I’ve been in lots of these – 2010, 2014 (Olympics) – it’s the same. The guys don’t tell you. Why would they tell you? They want to go, they think they’re going to get better and they’re going to push through it, and he tried to push through it.
“But he said even yesterday when he started pushing through it it started heating up right away. I don’t know what that means in medical terms, but I know in coaching terms that means you’re not doing very good.”
Team Canada has already made four injury replacements.
Logan Couture (Jamie Benn), Corey Perry (Jeff Carter) and Jay Bouwmeester (Duncan Keith) got the call before training camp while O’Reilly arrived just as its ending.
The biggest thing that played in the favour of the Buffalo Sabres centre was his performance for Canada during back-to-back gold-medal wins at the IIHF World Hockey Championship. Two years ago, he was particularly effective on a line with Giroux, whom he’ll start with here as well.
“Giroux played in the middle, O’Reilly played on the wall,” recalled Babcock. “That’s what I said to them both today – it doesn’t matter to me (who is at centre). Someone win a faceoff, the first guy down play low and you guys work it out.
“It’s win (the faceoff) on your strong side and let’s have the puck all the time.”
O’Reilly had been hoping to be named to Team Canada when the final roster selections were made in June and didn’t hesitate when this opportunity arose.
However, his head was still spinning somewhat after taking an optional morning skate at Consol Energy Center.
“It’s crazy how quick things turn around,” said O’Reilly. “(I was) just trying to prepare for the season and now it’s here: I’m getting ready to play a game tonight. It’s definitely exciting, though.
“I’m glad I’m here.”
