Photo Credit: Sergei Belski/USA TODAY Sports

It wasn’t too difficult to read the writing on the wall from the Vancouver Canucks’ decision to have Ryan Miller fly out to Winnipeg to join the club for a Friday practice. Miller, 34, was Vancouver’s workhorse starter prior to sustaining a knee strain in a late-February game against the New York Islanders, and it would seem that the club is intent on getting him back into the lineup in time for the Stanley Cup playoffs.

On Friday afternoon in an appearance on the Brady and Walker show on Sportsnet the Fan590, Canucks general manager Jim Benning addressed the topic of Miller’s health status. During the course of the interview Benning confirmed that the team is hoping to get Miller a tuneup start or two prior to the end of the regular season.

Read on past the jump.

“Both of (Miller and Eddie Lack) have played real good for us, and we’ve needed both of them this year,” Benning said of Miller and Lack during his Friday afternoon interview.

“Ryan got off to a real good start with us and was playing good and then when he got hurt,” continued the first-year Canucks executive. “Eddie stepped in and he played real well since Ryan got hurt.

“I’m of the belief that you need two good goalies to win, and Ryan will start practicing today with the team and we’ll just go day-to-day with him and see where he’s at. Hopefully he can get into a game or two at the end of the season here.”

That last sentence there is the money quote. If it wasn’t obvious enough from the news that Miller would practice with the club on Friday, it should be now: the club wants Miller to get some game action before the postseason. That’s now confirmed by the general manager.

Whether or not Miller in fact makes it back in time to start for the Canucks in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs remains to be seen. In handicapping what’s going on in his Provies postgame on Thursday night Jason Botchford of the Vancouver Province convincingly opined that Lack remains the club’s most likely playoff starter. The club would obviously like to have the option though, which is fair enough.

It does softly suggest though that as good as Lack has been in 19 appearances since Miller got hurt, he hasn’t upset the applecart when it comes to the Canucks’ depth chart in goal.

So stay tuned. And remember the first rule of Goalieville: expect the Canucks to follow whatever course of action would cause the most drama.