Terry O'Reilly

Terence Joseph James O'Reilly (born June 7, 1951) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey right winger. He played for the NHL's Boston Bruins and featured in three Stanley Cup Finals. He was one of the most effective enforcers in NHL history. O'Reilly was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

O’Reilly would play 3 years of junior hockey with the Oshawa Generals from 1968-71. Having his best year with the team During the 1970-71 season scoring 23 goals and 42 assists in 54 games.

O'Reilly was picked by the Boston Bruins in the first round as the 14th pick overall in the 1971 NHL Amateur Draft. O'Reilly spent his entire career in Boston, serving as the captain of the Bruins during the 1983–84 and 1984–85 seasons before his retirement. The Bruins retired his No. 24 on October 24, 2002.^[1]

After being drafted he would play a season with the Boston Braves during the 1971-72 season.

O'Reilly made his NHL debut in the Bruins' final game of the 1971–72 regular season on April 2, 1972. He scored a goal in Boston's 6–4 victory over Toronto at Boston Garden.

O'Reilly was known for being a tough player, racking up over 200 penalty minutes in five consecutive seasons, and earning for himself the nickname "Bloody O'Reilly" in the press. His teammate, Phil Esposito, dubbed O'Reilly "Taz" in reference to the Tasmanian Devil cartoon character for O'Reilly's reckless, hard driving style of play. He was very protective of his teammates. When the Bruins retired O'Reilly's No. 24, Ray Bourque noted that O'Reilly's banner "hangs next to mine, protecting me again."^[2]

During the 1973-74 season O’Reilly would play in 76 games helping lead the Bruins all the way to the Stanley cup finals. The following year in the 1974-75 season O’Reilly would be invited to the NHL all star game for the first time he would go on to score 1 goal and tally 1 assist in the game.

On top of his physical presence, he also had a decent scoring touch, highlighted by his 29-goal, 90-point season in 1977–78. This would lead to him being invited to the NHL all star game for a second time and once again helping lead the bruins to the Stanley cup finals. He would add to that with a 77-point effort the following campaign. He had 211 and 205 minutes in penalties in those seasons respectively, displaying an excellent balance of grit and scoring. He finished his 13-year career with 204 goals, 402 assists for 606 points, a +212 plus/minus and 2,095 minutes in penalties. As of January 1, 2022, O'Reilly was ranked 20th in career goals scored by a Boston Bruin in regular-season play.

In the infamous December 23, 1979, incident at Madison Square Garden, during a post-game scrum, a New York Rangers fan rolled up a program tightly and smacked Stan Jonathan in the face drawing blood, then stole his stick and wielded it like a weapon. O'Reilly scaled the glass and charged into the stands. His teammates followed when other fans tried to intervene. O'Reilly was suspended eight games for his part in the brawl.^[3]

2 years after his retirement O’Reily would be become the head coach of the Bruins replacing Harry Sinden in the middle of the 1986–87 NHL season. After finishing that year 34-27-6 overall and bringing the Bruins to the playoffs he was able to get the permanent head coaching spot. In his second year he would go 44-30-6. Taking the Bruins all the way to the Stanley Cup finals in 1988 winning a conference championship in the process. They would eventually fall to the Wayne Gretzky-led Edmonton Oilers in the finals. He would keep his job until 1989, when he left to care for, and spend more time with his son, Evan, who was seriously ill with liver disease. A couple years later O'Reilly would become an assistant coach for the Rangers for the two seasons prior to the lockout from 2002 to the end of 2003–04 NHL season.

In the Adam Sandler movie Happy Gilmore , O'Reilly is mentioned as Happy Gilmore's favorite hockey player when growing up due to his tough style of play.

O'Reilly has stated his favorite player who plays for the Bruins is Milan Lucic, also born on June 7.

He was inducted into the Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame in 1990.

On August 24, 2015 O'Reilly threw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Portland Sea dogs game.

• NHL All-Star Game — 1975, 1978
• Won the Seventh Player Award — 1975
• Won the Elizabeth C. Dufresne Trophy — 1978
• Bruins Three Stars Awards — 1978, 1979, 1980
• Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame (Class of 1990)
• His #24 Jersey was retired by the Boston Bruins on October 24, 2002.
• Named One of the Top 100 Best Bruins Players of all Time.^[4]
• Boston Bruins All-Centennial Team ^[5]

Most Penalty Minutes in Boston Bruins franchise history.

• List of NHL players with 2,000 career penalty minutes

• Biographical information and career statistics from NHL.com, or Eliteprospects.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or The Internet Hockey Database
• Article about number retirement and achievements at bostonbruins.com

• 1951 births
• Living people
• Boston Braves (AHL) players
• Boston Bruins captains
• Boston Bruins coaches
• Boston Bruins draft picks
• Boston Bruins players
• Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States
• Boston Bruins announcers
• Canadian ice hockey coaches
• Canadian ice hockey right wingers
• Canadian sportspeople of Irish descent
• NHL first-round draft picks
• National Hockey League players with retired numbers
• New York Rangers coaches
• Oshawa Generals players
• Ice hockey people from Niagara Falls, Ontario
• 20th-century Canadian sportsmen

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata