Miller modest about 350-win NHL milestone
MILESTONE NIGHT: After reaching the 350-win plateau, Canuck within sight of most victories by a U.S. goalie
On Monday night, Ryan Miller became just the 21st goalie in NHL history to record 350 wins.
To put this in perspective, he passed, sigh, Gump Worsley on the all-time list last year and is now training his sights on, double sigh, Evgeni Nabokov (353 wins) and Rogie Vachon (355). There are just two American-born goalies with more wins than Miller — Tom Barrasso and John Vanbiesbrouck — which means if he stays healthy and productive, the Canucks keeper will set a new benchmark for wins by an American goalie sometime next season.
“It’s something I’ve thought about,” he said Tuesday in a quiet part of the Canucks locker-room. “I try not to get distracted by the end results, but there’s something definitive about wins.”
Now, we call this to your attention because, following his 3-2 win over Colorado Monday night, Miller might have been the only person in Vancouver who gave his achievement much thought. He is, inarguably, one of the finest goalies of his generation. His career, which is still not over, will merit Hall of Fame consideration. Off the ice, he’s one of the game’s most articulate spokesmen.
But for all that he is and all he’s accomplished in his 14-year NHL career, Miller remains a stranger in a strange land with the Canucks; an elite player who hasn’t connected with this market on a meaningful level. There are any number of reasons for this and maybe you don’t have to look any farther than the Canucks’ won-lost record during Miller’s time here to understand why his relationship with the faithful is cool.
But there are also three months left in this season — most likely his last in Vancouver — and that presents Miller with an opportunity. Things haven’t worked out the way he’d hoped, but still he’d like to leave behind something for a city he’s come to care about — a city that’s given him some good times even if it hasn’t fully embraced him.
“I just wish I had more time to get out and participate like I did in Buffalo, where I was really connected to the community,” Miller said. “I don’t think the fans here have got to know me as a person because I’ve been busy with my personal life.
“But I approached this season very seriously. I know I’m at the tail end of my career and the tail end of my contract. I’m just trying to play as well as I can and enjoy it as best I can and we’ll see what happens.”
Miller, as it happens, is currently in the midst of one of those mini-runs he’s periodically experienced during his time with the Canucks. He’s won his last three starts, surrendering just five goals over that span. The Canucks, for their part, have won four in a row. And while no one is planning the Stanley Cup parade route just yet, they’re now just one point out of the second wild-card spot in the West.
The problem is, during his three seasons here, the good times have never lasted for either Miller or the team. In his first year with the Canucks, Miller was on his way to a 40-win season when he suffered a knee injury in February, missed 21 games and watched most of the Canucks’ playoff run from the bench.
Since that injury, it’s been up and down, in and out for the goalie. And when the Canucks were floundering near the NHL basement in mid-December, it looked like his time here would end badly. But since their infamous meltdown in Carolina, the Canucks have gone 6-2-1 over their last nine and offered something resembling hope to the masses.
“I think this last stretch is more indicative of what this team can be,” Miller said. “You can sense a different energy around some of these wins. I think we’ve found some confidence. You watch some of these guys, how it’s ebbed and flowed over the last couple of years. Now you’re seeing them settling into who they are.”
Miller, as mentioned, is a thinker both on and off the ice. At the rink, he’s developed a close working relationship with Jacob Markstrom and an interesting professional relationship with Dan Cloutier, the Canuck’s first-year goalie coach who’s only four years older than Miller and played against him in the aughts.
“It definitely works both ways when you’ve got a veteran like Ryan,” Cloutier says with a laugh. “But I enjoy talking to him because he’s passionate and very intelligent.”
As for his life away from the rink, he’s become a family man with his wife Noureen DeWulf and two-yearold son Bodhi. And if you’ve ever got an hour to kill, ask him what he thinks about the recent American presidential election.
“He’s the kind of guy, if you ask him what time it is, he’ll tell you how to build a watch,” said one of the Canucks.
He is, in short, an interesting cat and it’s too bad this city and its fans haven’t come to know him. But if he gets the end to his Vancouver story right, few will remember everything that came before it.