Its taken only three games for St. Louis Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock to develop a man crush on his new goaltender Ryan Miller.
"It's like everything sticks to him," Hitchcock said. "That's the part I like. … I don't know the technical part of playing goal, I just know everything sticks to him. That's good for us."
Miller is now 3-0 after he and his Blues defeated the Nashville Predators on Thursady night.
In his first three starts for the Blues, Miller has stopped 58 of 63 shots for a .919 save % and 1.67 GAA.
Miller said after the Nashville win that its refreshing to be playing behind the team that yields the second-fewest shots in the NHL per game (26.4).
The Sabres allow the second-most (34.5).
Jhonas Enroth ate 44 shots and made 43-saves for the Sabres in their 3-1 win in Tampa on Thursday night.
Miller acknowledged that he's getting an education playing against Western clubs after killing it in the East for 12 seasons.
"I’m still trying to get used to the West a little bit,” Miller said. “That first goal, I should know better. It’s something that the boys mentioned. I just thought the guy was going to throw it at my pads. I didn’t think it would be a passing play. I took the short side and didn’t get a good move on that one. Those are the little things I’m looking to learn and snuff those out of the game.”
Miller loves the the challenge of having to face fewer shots per game behind the ultra-stingy Blues defense corps.
"It's still the NHL and there are going to be opportunities. No one wants to hear a goalie complain about few shots, so I'm happy to be a part of this club, and they play a good brand of hockey," Miller said. "It's my job to do a job. Stop the puck. Keep myself alert and keep myself energetic and engaged because there's going to be moments in the game when I'm going to have to play my game and it might not be after a couple shots of warm-ups."
Preds head coach Barry Trotz said afterwards that the Blues do not give an inch of free ice to its opponents.:
"They lock it down pretty good," Trotz said. "… They don't give you much. They got people back. You've got to get the puck deep and you've got to retrieve it. They lock you down and swarm on you and defend really well, and when you do make a good offensive play and make it out to the point, they're pretty committed to blocking shots and taking your lanes. It's hard to make plays out there. There's no space."
Music to Miller's ears.
Miller and the Blues are a match made in heaven so far.
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Jhonas Enroth stole the show in Tampa on Thursday night. Fans paid good money to watch Steven Stamkos make his triumphant return to the Bolts' lineup after sitting out 45 games with a broken leg that he suffered in Boston back in October. To add more drama to the night, Ryan Callahan made his Bolts debut. No Marty St. Louis either.
Enroth didn't care about all that. He made 43 saves on 44 shots in his fourth win of the season.
Jhonas lost his shutout bid with 2:29 remaining in regulation. Afterwards he said he was pissed off at himself losing his perfect game after he was in control of it for 57:30.
Frankly, I 'm glad that Jhonas is pissed at himself. It shows that he takes great pride in his own play. He's been playing like a man possessed ever since the Olympic break and he expects greatness from himself every time he takes the crease. That is Ryan Miller's influence that has rubbed off on Enroth.
Tyler Myers, Cody Hodgson and Marcus Foligno each contributed a goal and an assist for the Sabres, who are 4-1-0 since the Olympic break.
The Sabres lost power forwards Zemgus Girgensons and Chris Stewart to lower body injuries. Sabres coach Ted Nolan said that both players will not play in Sunrise on Friday night.
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While his good buddy Jhonas was getting pelted with pucks, Ryan Miller won his third staright start for the Blues Miller made 20 saves in the win.
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Is there an NHL GM getting more grief and bad pub these days than Garth Snow of the NY Islanders?
Snow butchered the Thomas Vanek trade on Wednesday. Tin cup style. He traded his extremely valuable pending UFA sniper to Montreal for a 2nd round pick and a former second round prospect Sebastien Collberg.
Snow thought that he could sell Vanek on a long term contract extension to stay with the Islanders and to transition with them to Brooklyn for the 2015-16 season. Snow's rationale was that Vanek would love to stay and play with John Tavares and Kyle Okposo, and be a focal point of the re-tooling of the once proud Islanders.
In January, Vanek told Snow that he would not be re-signing with the Islanders at the end of the season. Vanek told his GM that he would prefer to test the unrestricted free agency market. Snow had six weeks to craft a smart hockey deal to trade Vanek to a contender. Such a smart deal would have allowed Snow to re-coup the 1st and 2nd rounder that he sent to Buffalo on October 27 in exchange for pending UFA sniper Matt Moulson.
Snow failed miserably to re-coup the assets that he wasted on Vanek.
I nearly spit my coffee out on my windshield when Snow said that he initially traded Moulson to Buffalo because he wasn't planning to re-sign his best player John Tavares' best friend when free agency opens in July.
Seriously, folks. I cannot make this up.
Snow wasn't going to re-sign a perennial 30 goal scorer so he traded him for a ton of valuable assets that he will never again be able to re-coup now that Vanek resides in Montreal.
Oh, and don't be surprised when Snow calls Sabres GM Tim Murray on June 1 and tells him that he can have the Islanders' 1st round pick in the 2014 entry draft rather than giving the same pick to Buffalo in the Connor McDavid draft in June 2015.
Thanks, Hockey Central @ Noon
On deadline day, Snow's price was set too high. He was looking to trade a rental for a roster player, a 1st rounder and a second rounder. When Anaheim and LA heard Snow's asking price, they skated away. Why wouldn't they? Vanek is the definition of a rental for Montreal. Everyone inside, and outside the NHL knows that he's going to sign with the Minnesota Wild in July. Its a lock. On trade deadline days of the recent past, GMs were valuing rentals a lot higher than they were on Tuesday. Hence, the low return for Snow for Vanek. Montreal must have been laughing under their breath at Snow when they offered a 2nd rounder and Collberg. They named their own price. Snow gambled on the market and lost big time. As he stated in the interview, he didn't receive his first call to inquire about Vanek until after the Noon hour on Wednesday. There weren't a long line of suitors for Vanek.
In the end, Snow got what he could for Vanek.
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On Wednesday night, the Sabres tweeted the sweater numbers of their three newly acquired roster players.
Numbers of new #Sabres:
#17 Torrey Mitchell
#30 Michal Neuvirth
#88 Cory Conacher
I have to admit that I was more than just a little bit irked when I did a double-take at Neuvirth wearing #30. Cory Conacher opted to wear #88 in Buffalo even though #89 is his go-to NHL sweater number. Conacher wore #89 in Tampa and in Ottawa. Perhaps Conacher told the equipment manager that he can’t carry Alexander Mogilny’s heavy sweater #89.
Neuvirth wore #30 in Washington. He did know that Ryan Miller made the #30 famous in his 11+ seasons in Buffalo, right? Hell, Miller knew enough to stear clear of his go-to sweater #39 when he was a young puppy in the Buffalo system. Miller side-stepped #39 out of respect to “The Dominator”. Miller is now wearing his favorite #39 in St. louis, just as he has in the past two Olympic games.
Ryan Miller is the franchise leader in wins for a goalie in Buffalo Sabers history. For crying out loud, he just left town less than a week ago. This had to be a typo, thought I to myself.
I checked the roster Thursday morning and #30 Neuvirth still appeared.
I was pumped to see the below tweet later in the afternoon on Thursday. Common sense prevailed. There is a hockey god in Buffalo afterall.
Did Neuvirth knowingly and willingly demand another number other than Miller’s #30 to avoid controversy? The kid lost his starting job to Braden Holtby in Washington this season. Maybe he’s had enough negative attention for one season. Maybe he prefers to fly under the radar in Buffalo?
Did the Sabres capitulate and order Neuvirth a new sweater number after Twitter erupted into a firestorm of “WTF’s” at the thought of a goalie other than Ryan Miller wearing the hallowed #30?
However it happened, I’m very glad and happy that it did.
Ryan Miller’s #30 is Ryan Miller’s #30.
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Speaking of Czech Republic native Buffalo Sabres goaltenders, this guy has waited long enough to be enshrined into the Buffalo Sabres Hall Of Fame, hasn’t he?
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