Yet another embarrassing performance for the Vancouver Canucks on home ice Thursday night against the Los Angeles Kings, dropping the contest 5-1.
JT Miller is yet again another talking point for his struggles lately. Due to his struggles tonight, he finished as the low man of the forward group in even-strength ice time, playing just 9:25 minutes – 17 seconds less than Phil Di Giuseppe.
Rick Tocchet met with the media post-game to address his star forward:
“He’s struggling. He’s caught in between. You know, it seems like every time he’s on the ice, something bad happens. I think he’s got some bad luck, but he’s also got some reads that he’s got to – big pause – he’s got to look at himself right now and focus on some of these reads. You can’t dive in on the four-on-four, things like that. I think he’s trying, [but] sometimes the focus level has to get a little higher.”
Outside of his two-goal, four-point night against the Montreal Canadiens on the first game of the Canucks’ road trip, Miller has been held pointless, finishing a five-game span as a minus-five rating while averaging 15:56 minutes of ice time – two minutes under his season average and three and a half minutes under his average last season.
It was a tough look for Miller on both the second and fourth Kings goals tonight.
First, he gets caught puck-watching and gliding through the defensive zone, showing very minimal effort to try and put any sort of pressure on the Kings puck carrier. He gets caught out of his F3 position, and while Brock Boeser goes down to switch with him, it leaves Alex Turcotte alone at the side of the net to bury the rebound.
Second, Miller gets caught pinching up on the power play, leaving the point man for an easy outlet pass. This just so happened to be right as the penalty expired, springing Kevin Fiala and Trevor Moore on a two-on-one the other way that ended up in the back of their net.
While Miller is the main topic of conversation for his play, his entire line of himself, Boeser and Di Giuseppe all had bad games. Tocchet touched on the lines that struggled tonight and what he wants from them moving forward:
“So, we’ve got to correct it, or I’ve got to correct it. I mean, you can’t let it go. I can’t play two lines. So I need some of these guys to step it up. Even if they just play neutral, you know, just as long as they don’t make some egregious mistakes.”
On the season, Miller has just eight goals and 21 assists for 29 points with a minus-six rating. He and the rest of his line will have a shot to redeem themselves on home ice on Saturday night when the Canucks welcome the Edmonton Oilers to town.