Photo Credit: Sergei Belski/USA TODAY Sports
Vancouver Canucks goaltender Ryan Miller is rushing to get back into the lineup, but even he doesn’t believe that it’s realistic to expect him to get to full speed in time for the postseason.
“I want to make myself an option to be someone who can play if needed,” Miller told Sportsnet’s Dan Murphy during a second intermission interview during the broadcast of Vancouver’s tilt against the Winnipeg Jets. “My goal is to be 100 percent healthy and be that option when needed.
“That’s really the only goal that I’m looking at right now,” continued Miller, “because that’s the realistic goal. It’s not realistic to say I’m going to be 100 percent ready to go and play in these kind of important games, but I’m going to be a good option pretty soon.”
Miller also echoed Canucks general manager Jim Benning’s comments from Friday, and confirmed that he’s hoping to get some game action prior to the end of the regular season.
“That’s why I wanted to come (to Winnipeg) as soon as I felt ready to get some quality practice time and get some work in,” Miller said. “We’ll get to work tomorrow and go from there.”
One interesting ramification of Miller getting back to game fitness – if not to the point of starting, then at least to the point where he can backup for Lack in the postseason – is that it would free up Jacob Markstrom to go back to the American Hockey League, where the Utica Comets are shaping up to be a realistic Calder Cup contender. Obviously that’s not the club’s first priority, but icing a contender in Utica has seemed to be a priority of this management group all year.
Miller also discussed his recovery, which he characterized as not behind schedule.
“The knee has definitely progressed within the window that we thought it would,” Miller said. “It took some time to heal and then it took some time to react in a way where I could get onto the ice.We’re getting through that progression where I have to get back to speed with everything. It’s something where everything feels stable it’s just getting those muscles to react at an NHL level now. Conditioning is good, everything is good, just need to get that speed up.”
In addition to concerns about his speed, Miller expressed some concern about how his knee would hold up under the stress of reverse VH and other post integration techniques, by way of Jason Botchford of the Vancouver Province.
“My save skills have really improved over the past week,” Miller said on Friday. “Getting out of the save skills and into the more modern stuff around the posts has been a little slower coming.
“But this last week it’s improved a lot. I just have to do it at the speed of a game.”
Integrating those new techniques into his game has been an issue for Miller all season. The veteran goaltender’s save percentage on five-alarm chances has been among the best in the league this season, according to shot location data found at war-on-ice.com, but he’s been vulnerable to the sort of odd-angle shots that modern post-integration techniques are designed to defend against.
It’ll be something to look out for when Miller makes his return to action, likely later this week.
