The details are hazy, but Cal O’Reilly remembers the feeling of that night almost 20 years ago.
A wide-eyed 19-year-old who’d just finished his final Canadian junior season with the Windsor Spitfires, O’Reilly would lace up his skates for the first time as a professional as a member of the Milwaukee Admirals.
The venue: Milwaukee’s Bradley Center, a gem of the American Hockey League.
The crowd: the largest in the league that season, thanks to a charity promotion that pushed ticket sales past 17,000.
The opponent? The Chicago Wolves.
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“It was an eye opener,” O’Reilly recalled last week. “But it was … it was amazing.
“Definitely, you’re nervous. But then when the game gets going, it’s still hockey.
“They had a great group of guys there that made me feel really comfortable. Good coaching staff that made me feel really comfortable, too. … Just to get a taste of it so young and right away, I think it helped me for the next year.”
Nine hundred ninety-nine games later, O’Reilly will take to the ice for his 1,000th regular-season AHL game Thursday against the Wolves at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont.
O’Reilly ranks ninth on the all-time AHL list and could climb to eighth this season. Willie Marshall holds the record with 1,205, set from 1952-72.
The Admirals will have a larger-than-usual contingent for an 11 a.m. school day road game. The league will mark the occasion. O’Reilly has been reminded with increasing frequency the milestone was creeping nearer.
Most of the previous plateau games are mixed in a decades-long blur of rushes, faceoffs, passes and checks.
His hundredth? There must have been one, because you can’t get to 1,000 without it and they tell O’Reilly 1,000 is next.
His 500th?
“No,” he said. “God no.
“The only game I could probably tell you is when I hit 1,000 professional games (March 25, 2022). That was with Lehigh Valley; we were in Laval playing them, and that was my 1,000th pro game. So I remember that game because the guys did some things for me, but yeah, I couldn’t tell you other milestones.”
O’Reilly appreciates the effort everyone is making, especially wife Terra, but for him the real celebration is having gotten further and lasted longer than most players do in a game he fell in love with as a child.
The wiry 6-foot center from Toronto has 6 goals and 21 assists for 27 points, a plus-4 rating and a team-high three shootout goals this season.
O’Reilly has totaled 172 goals and 589 assists for 761 points with nine teams in the AHL regular season, plus another 105 games and 85 points in the playoffs. He leads the AHL-era Admirals in games played and assists.
O’Reilly also played in 145 NHL games with the Predators, Phoenix Coyotes, Pittsburgh Penguins, Buffalo Sabers and Minnesota Wild and spent a season and a half in Russia from 2012-14.
There have been numerous times O’Reilly’s run could have ended.
Injuries are inevitable; he is fortunate that his more severe ones came when he was younger and his body healed more quickly, though. And he has struggled at times to keep his confidence and block distractions.
“I think a few years ago, I didn’t have very good year,” O’Reilly said. “Definitely lost some love of the game a little bit, but … I never lost the love of the game (in terms of not) of wanting to play. After that season was over, I was like, I’m not done yet. I want to go on my terms, but I never have lost that yet.
“But you know, there’s lots of times I could have (still) loved to play and they could have not had a contract for me at my age. I’ve been fortunate to keep getting them.”
O’Reilly is in his second stint with the Admirals, rejoining the franchise before the 2023-24 season on an AHL deal.
When he came along as a 19-year-old for those two games in April 2005, he saw veterans such as Darren Haydar first as an example of someone who succeeded playing a similar style. He also saw someone who was helpful to those around him.
This time, as the veteran, he’s trying to have a similar influence with his younger teammates, to answer questions, share his experiences, serve as a sounding board or join in a round of golf.
“Cal is a great guy,” said second-year Admirals right wing Kevin Wall, who got to know the off-ice side of O’Reilly and his family at such gatherings as Thanksgiving dinner at their home. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to be able to be good friends with him and know that I can go to him whenever I need anything.
“It’s tough to fully get away from it, so we definitely talk about hockey. But then, yeah, I’ve had life conversations with him. I’ve asked him for advice on my own personal career, and he’s been extremely helpful. I’d say just we talked about just about anything.”
Wall chuckled about the idea of playing 1,000 games at this level. At age 25, Wall has yet to touch 100.
“It’s an unbelievable accomplishment,” Wall said. “It being my second year pro, I’m starting to see how much the game takes a toll on your body, on you mentally, and for him to be able to do that and still do it to this day with four kids at home, it’s impressive, and it just goes to attest to him as a person and him as a hockey player.”
O’Reilly didn’t take any shots in that long-ago debut, a 3-2 Admirals victory in a chippy game with a hated rival.
The bumps hurt a little more than they did during O’Reilly’s first games as an Admiral, and experience and smarts come in handy. But there’s no doubting the desire and effort will be the same Thursday.
O’Reilly was asked what words of wisdom he could share with the version of himself about to suit up for the first time as a pro.
“Yeah,” he said, “it goes quick.
“And you don’t know … you just don’t know how many chances you’re going to get in the NHL, for one, for sure. And it just flies by, you know. So don’t take things for granted.
“I feel like I just played my first game, and here I am, 19 years later.”
