Photo Credit: Geoff Burke/USA TODAY Sports
Vancouver Canucks goaltender Ryan Miller is set to parachute into Winnipeg this week where he’s scheduled to practice with the club on Friday, according to Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy.
Miller, 34, hasn’t appeared in a game since February 22 when he sprained his knee in a collision with Jannik Hansen. It was reported by TSN’s Farhan Lalji several weeks ago that Miller was unlikely to begin skating before early April and surely wouldn’t see any game action prior to the conclusion of the regular season. That report was eventually repudiated softly by Miller’s agent and the Canucks.
Though the team has told TSN’s Jon Abbott that Miller’s timeline remains the same as it ever has, it certainly seems a bit odd that Miller is flying out to Winnipeg to practice with the team if he isn’t preparing to get into a game before the end of the regular season. Perhaps he’s very committed to ‘just having fun.’
Read past the jump.
One way or another it’ll be fascinating to see how this plays out.
Based on the way controversial goaltending situations in Vancouver have played out historically, at the very least Miller’s return from injury threatens to challenge the ‘no drama’ modus operandi of the Trevor Linden, Jim Benning, Willie Desjardins regime.
Since Miller went down with injury ostensible Canucks backup Eddie Lack has stepped up and been very probably Vancouver’s single best player. In 18 appearances since February 22, Lack has managed a .925 save percentage. That Lack has managed to be that effective is particularly impressive because only Devan Dubnyk – among all NHL goaltenders since February 22 – has appeared in as many games (18 games played going into Thursday night’s slate).
On the year as a whole Miller has managed the better win/loss record, but by the metric that a goaltender has the most individual control over – the percentage of shots faced that they turn away – Lack has been Vancouver’s more effective puck stopper.
In addition to performing better than Miller has this season, Lack is also fresher and in a pretty serious groove. On the other hand, Miller has that big contract, and before going down with injury had been very clearly Desjardins’ guy.
If Miller is able to return to action and get a game in before the playoffs, is it possible that he’ll be the club’s starter for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs? We’ll wait for Miller to get in a regular season start before crossing that bridge, but surely the veteran goaltender taking the extraordinary measure of flying out to Winnipeg to get a practice in would suggest that it’s a possibility.
