It's an understatement to say that Ryan Miller is an important part of this team.
The Sabres goaltender has had a couple of down years after his phenomenal performance during the olympic season. Since then, his goals against average and save percentage have declined.
Many will point to the fact that he (and the entire team) was rattled after the Milan Lucic incident at the beginning of the season. With that, and almost 400 man games lost due to injury, I think it's tough to really look at his stats seriously. The year right after the olympics, I feel he was burnt out. Miller was overused during the Sabres season, and then played ridiculous hockey in the olympics.
I'm not trying to make excuses for him, but there are some good reasons that may have hampered his performance. This year, there is no excuse.
Although I expect the entire Sabres team to be better, I don't think that Miller will perform as well as he did three seasons ago.
I expect his numbers to improve from last season and I think he has a chance to hit 40 wins.
One other thing that might come into play is the schedule. With fewer back-to-back games, Miller may be able to play a little more often.
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