from Greg Wyshynski of ESPN,

ESPN: How have you guys done this? How have you gone from last in the conference to ensconced in a playoff seed in the Central Division?

Ryan O'Reilly: [Laughs] It's been a lot of factors. We started the new season with so many new faces, it took a while to find our groove. And we just stuck with it. Obviously we had our struggles, but we have a really good team. Outstanding goaltending. We have a great "D" corps. We're skating hard and helping our defense and not giving teams anything. It's been fun. Guys are excited with this big climb. And now we're trying to win this division and get the best possible seeding we can.

ESPN: What was the emotional journey like? At one point it was looking like GM Doug Armstrong might slam the button and blow up the team.

O'Reilly: Everyone comes in so gung-ho early in the year. Everyone had such high expectations right off the bat, and I had them too. So it was really disappointing, the way we started. I think the whole hockey world was [disappointed]; like, "What's wrong with these guys? Why aren't they winning? They're in last place." It's an emotional roller coaster. But I remember something my dad told me: To just be patient. It's not easy to win in this league. It takes a while for things to come together, and that's exactly what happened. It was great that they didn't blow the team up. They had faith in us and let us work through it.

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