Brayden Point to IR, Sam O'Reilly debuts in Buffalo
TLDR: The Lightning put Brayden Point on injured reserve after he left Sunday's 4-3 loss in Winnipeg, and 20-year-old prospect Sam O'Reilly makes his NHL debut tonight against the Sabres.
It started quietly on Sunday night. Point's last shift ended with 6:16 left in the first period, he wasn't on the bench to start the second, and Tampa later said he wouldn't return.
The Lightning had only dressed 11 forwards, so losing Point left them with 10. Max Crozier, a defenseman, was taking shifts up front, and the power play looked lost. Somehow they still came back from 3 goals down to tie it 3-3. Then Erik Cernak was called for closing his hand on the puck with 52.7 seconds left, Winnipeg got a 5-on-3, and this happened:
My goodness. Mark Scheifele wins the game with a buzzer beater. 0.3 seconds on the clock. What a pass from Cole Perfetti. 4-3 #NHLJets.
They put time back on the clock, so officially the winner came with 1.6 seconds left. A lot of the blame afterward went to Ryan McDonagh, who lost the puck off his stick in the final seconds and couldn't pin it against the boards to run out the clock. That's rough, but it was a split-second play and it came after a whole night of penalties. The bigger problem was what Jon Cooper said after the game: Point might miss some time. He played only 5:35 over 6 shifts before he went down.
They ended up putting time back on the clock, so Mark Scheifele's buzzer beater came with 1.6 seconds left on the clock. Does that number sound familiar, #NHLJets fans?
On Tuesday morning the bad news became a roster move. Point went on IR with an undisclosed injury and no timeline, and O'Reilly got called up from AHL Syracuse. Practice looked thin. Hagel, Cirelli and Lilleberg all took maintenance days, and the kid went straight into the lineup.
No Cirelli, Hagel or Lilleberg (all body maintenance days) and no Point, Sam O’Reilly has been skating with Yanni Gourde and Jake Guentzel #GoBolts #TBLightning
O'Reilly also got reps in the bumper on the first power-play unit, which shows how much Tampa wants from him right away. He's 20, he was the 32nd overall pick by Edmonton in 2024, and he came to Tampa in the June 2025 deal that sent Isaac Howard to the Oilers. In 12 games with the Crunch this season he has 2 goals and 4 points. That's not much scoring, but the scouting line on him has always been his 2-way game, not his point totals.
He got a loud round of stick taps in the stretch circle after practice. Then he told the story everybody wants from a first call-up: who he called first.
Sam O’Reilly said he couldn’t believe it when he was told he was joining the #GoBolts. Said first person he called was his mother. “She didn't believe it at the start, and then kind of told her it was actually real, and she kind of lost it.”
His mom shouldn't have to go far to see it. O'Reilly is from the Toronto area, less than 2 hours from KeyBank Center, so expect a big group of family and friends in Buffalo tonight. Waiting for him is Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, who has been a weird kind of problem for the Bolts.
UPL was 3-0-0 vs #GoBolts last season but had an .890 save percentage and 3.69 GAA. #sabrehood
So UPL went 3-0-0 against Tampa last season while letting in nearly 4 goals a game. Tampa scores on him and loses anyway, which isn't a great sign for a team that just lost on a 5-on-3 at the buzzer. Watch for 2 things tonight: whether O'Reilly really stays on that top power-play unit, and whether Cirelli and Hagel are back after their maintenance days. Until the Lightning give a timeline on Point, the middle of the lineup is an audition every night.
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