Even as the top team in the conference, the St. Louis Blues won’t have many guys up for the regular season awards this year. However, one name is almost certain to always be in the Lady Byng conversation and proved it again.
The St. Louis Blues are one of those rare teams where they truly are a team. The only downfall of that is that no one player stands out enough to get national recognition when it comes time to vote on regular season awards.
The one exception to that, lately, is Ryan O’Reilly. O’Reilly is a name you can basically pencil in as a leader for the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy before a season even begins.
The Lady Byng Memorial Trophy is given out annually to the player who best combines sportsmanship, gentlemanly conduct and on-ice ability. Often times it goes to the player who has the fewest penalty minutes in the league, but all those criteria are what voters are asked to consider.
For the third season in a row, O’Reilly is in the final three for this award. He finished second in the voting during the previous two seasons, one with Buffalo and one with St. Louis. He finished behind William Karlsson in 2017-18 and Aleksander Barkov in 2018-19.
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If O’Reilly captured the award this season, it would not be the first time. He was a Lady Byng recipient in 2013-14, while a member of the Colorado Avalanche.
O’Reilly will have some stiff competition. Auston Matthews and Nathan MacKinnon are the other two finalists.
Matthews and MacKinnon get more attention nationally for their production. They finished the season with 80 and 93 points, respectively. Both were low in the penalty minutes too, with Matthews only having eight minutes and 12 for MacKinnon.
Still, O’Reilly led a defense-oriented Blues team in points with 61 in 71 games. Considering he is not as prolific a goal scorer as the other two, his numbers are pretty impressive.
O’Reilly is also asked to do more defensively. He ranked seventh in the NHL in takeaways and in the top 10 for ice time among forwards.
2019-20 also marks the sixth time in his career he has had 10 minutes or fewer spent in the penalty box. Lots of players keep their penalty minutes down, but considering how much the Blues use him in a defensive role, as well as a top-line center, it’s even more important that he be on the ice and not in the box.
With such a broad criteria for voters to base their choice on, there is no clear player ahead of the other. If I had to guess, I would say O’Reilly comes in third behind MacKinnon and Matthews as 1 and 2. I think MacKinnon gets the nod due to averaging the most time on ice compared to penalties taken.
Regardless, it is always good to see Blues get recognition for awards, even if few fans really care much about the Lady Byng. Best of luck to O’Reilly in the voting.