Perhaps of equal importance was his impact both on the penalty kill and in the faceoff circle. He accumulated 4:10 of shorthanded ice time, second only to Rasmus Ristolainen, and blocked a heavy shot from Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman during a long 5-on-3 kill in the second period.
In the circle, O'Reilly won 25 of his 42 draws. It was the continuation of what has potential to be a historic season for the forward, who began the night with a league-leading 831 faceoffs won, on pace for the third-most wins by any player since the league began keeping faceoff stats in 1997-98.
"He does it all," said Reinhart, who scored two goals on assists from O'Reilly. "I've been with him and Jack a lot lately, and they've both been unbelievable in the faceoff circle. That makes it so much easier as a winger, that makes it so much easier on everyone when you start with the puck.
"It's just little things like that, and the two-way game he has is something everyone can watch and learn from him."
After earning a win over the second-place Bruins in Boston on Saturday, the Sabres have now beaten the NHL's top two teams in a span of four days. The victories were similar, O'Reilly said, in that on both occasions the Sabres came into the game with the mindset to stick with their game plan.
The win was not without adversity. The Sabres twice jumped out to one-goal leads, first on a goal from Nicholas Baptiste and later a power-play goal from Reinhart, only to see Tampa Bay tie the game on goals from Yanni Gourde and Vladimir Namestnikov.