Whether you like it or not, the Vancouver Canucks are committed to Ryan Miller until the end of eternity. Or, you know, until the end of next season. It feels like the same thing whenever you pay a non-elite goaltender $6 million in 2015; but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter very much if they win games.
That’s the issue, though; Miller’s 0.913 puts him close enough to the league average to declare margin of error. Which would be okay, if it wasn’t for the fact that goalies that have been percieved to be “worse” by the numbers weren’t getting it done better than him. Take a look at this:
SVGPWLOTLP%
Ryan Miller
913
20
7
7
6
0.5
Corey Crawford
912
18
11
6
1
0.639
Pekka Rinne
911
19
10
5
4
0.632
Antti Niemi
910
13
9
4
0
0.692
Devan Dubnyk
909
20
11
7
2
0.6
Mike Smith
909
16
10
5
1
0.656
Tuukka Rask
899
16
8
7
1
0.531
The charts make it obvious. Sure, Miller might be stopping a higher percentage of the pucks than these bigger names, but is he actually helping the Canucks win? No way. Look at the much better points percentage that some of these other goalies have; even Tuukka Rask, who apparently still believes it’s the offseason, is closer to bringing his team to the playoffs! The sad part is, is it wasn’t always like this. Look at last year:
SVGPWLOTLP%
Ryan Miller
911
45
29
15
1
0.656
Semyon Varlamov
921
56
28
20
8
0.571
Roberto Luongo
921
59
28
19
12
0.576
Cory Schneider
925
66
26
31
9
0.462
Jonas Hiller
919
49
26
19
4
0.571
Ondrej Pavelec
920
46
22
16
8
0.565
Jonathan Bernier
912
56
21
28
7
0.438
Steve Mason
928
47
18
18
11
0.5
Eddie Lack
921
35
18
13
4
0.571
Craig Anderson
923
35
14
13
8
0.514
Miller managed to make a bigger impact than just about every every goalie that you all complain about missing, pretty much every “good” starting goalie in the Canadian market (you’re not invited, Edmonton), and noted bad human Semyon Varlamov.
Clearly, he’s since lost the will to win. He initially proved that he could do what it takes, accepted it as enough, and has since been playing second fiddle. This isn’t a new concept for Miller; it’s just like the time he stole a round-robin game from Canada in the 2010 Olympics, and despite having a theoretically good save percentage in the gold medal game, couldn’t deliver in overtime.
This is also the same goalie who cake-walked his way to a Presidents Trophy in 2007, and stopped caring about victories in the second round of the playoffs. At some point you have to accept these complacency habits as full-on traits. Miller can point to his numers all he wants, but until he starts winning, he’s not the answer here.