Sam O’Reilly’s first NHL call came with a little disbelief, a lot of emotion and a long road from Toronto to Buffalo.
On Monday afternoon, the Lightning prospect phoned his mother, Betty, to tell her the news. “Mom, I got the call,” he said. Betty needed a second to process it.
“OK, what call?” she asked.
O’Reilly explained that Tampa Bay had summoned him from AHL Syracuse, and the reality hit fast.
“I just started crying,” Betty said. “I just started bawling, because this is everything he has ever dreamed of and wanted and dedicated his life to.
He loves hockey. He loves everything about it.”
That moment had been building for years. When O’Reilly was 7, he wrote on the back of one of his hockey photos, “My dream is to become a NHL player.” Thirteen years later, he made that dream real Wednesday night in Buffalo, only about a two-hour drive from his hometown of Toronto.
His father, Chuck, was overseas in England on a business trip when the call came. Once he heard the news, he scrambled to get home.
“As soon as I got off the phone with him, I called Air Canada and got to figure out a way home,” Chuck said.
By the time O’Reilly stepped onto the ice for his NHL debut, the family section was packed. Both sisters, Lexi and Charlie, were there, along with roughly 50 friends and relatives.
That group included a big contingent from Cochrane, the northeastern Ontario town of about 5,400 people where O’Reilly’s parents are from. Cochrane is also the birthplace of Hockey Hall of Famer Tim Horton, co-founder of the coffee and doughnut chain that carries his name.
“We have a Tim Horton museum inside the Tim Horton’s,” said Brian Bertrand, one of the many who made the 10-hour drive from Cochrane.
The family wanted to be close for the rookie lap, but not too close. They passed on standing at the glass.
“He doesn’t like that,” Lexi said. “He gets nervous when he sees us.”
Still, there was no missing the support. Green London Knights jerseys - O’Reilly’s former junior colors - stood out among the crowd, and the cheers were loud enough to reach him even before most fans had settled into their seats. Chuck sat a few rows up, phone pointed straight down toward the visiting tunnel, ready to capture the moment.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper even joked that the call-up timing had a practical upside because of the location.
“He’s from Toronto and this is Buffalo, and he doesn’t have to pay for flights,” Cooper deadpanned. “The fortuitous part is it’s close to home for him. So I guess what he made up in airline fares, he’s probably gonna get crushed in tickets.”
O’Reilly’s debut also came with a clear role. With Brayden Point on injured reserve and out at least through Saturday, Tampa Bay needed help, and O’Reilly fit several jobs at once.
He became the team’s only right-shot forward, brought faceoff ability similar to Point’s and slotted into a top-six role right away. He centered a line with Jake Guentzel and Yanni Gourde and took Point’s bumper spot on the top power-play unit.
Cooper pointed to O’Reilly’s AHL numbers - four points in 12 games - but said the production didn’t tell the full story.
“His point totals in the American League (four in 12 games), you can look at it and say, well, he doesn’t have a ton of points, but he’s second or third on the team in shots and pucks just haven’t gone in for him at the time,” Cooper said. “But by all the reports, he’s been awesome down there, and this day was coming at some point. It just happens to be (Wednesday).”
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