Avalanche's O'Reilly on playoffs, Lady Byng Trophy

Tuesday, 04.22.2014 / 6:47 PM

By NHL.com Staff -  / NHL Live blog

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Avalanche's O'Reilly on playoffs, Lady Byng Trophy

Colorado Avalanche forward Ryan O'Reilly was a guest of NHL Live to discuss the Stanley Cup Playoffs and his nomination for the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy.

The Avalanche lead their Western Conference First Round series against the Minnesota Wild 2-1 with Game 4 on Thursday (CNBC, TSN2, RDS2, ALT, FS-N, FS-WI) at Xcel Energy Center. Minnesota won Game 3 1-0 on Mikael Granlund's overtime goal.

For O'Reilly and many of the young Avalanche players, it was the first time experiencing a playoff game on the road.

"We don't have a ton of experience in the playoffs," O'Reilly said. "We know we're not going to be perfect every night, but it was a good learning experience. All and all, they deserved that win. As a team it wasn't our best game. We have to regroup."

O'Reilly's career-high 64 points helped lead the Avalanche to the Central Division title and tie a franchise record with 52 wins. He led the club in goals (28), power-play goals (nine) and game-winning-goals (six-tied), and led the League in takeaways (83) for the second time in the past three seasons.

Remarkably, O'Reilly was called for just one minor penalty all season. He joined Butch Goring (1977-78, Los Angeles) as the only players ever to receive two or fewer penalty minutes in 80 or more games.

"I'm trying to figure it out," O'Reilly said of staying out of the penalty box. "I guess it's been a lot of good luck."