Any time a star player gets benched in the third period of a one-goal game, it’s going to be news.
That’s especially true when that star player is J.T. Miller, the author of numerous last-minute comebacks for the Vancouver Canucks. But as the Canucks pushed for the tying goal in the final minutes of their game against the Nashville Predators on Sunday night, Miller remained glued to the bench.
When asked why Miller was benched in the third period, head coach Rick Tocchet was blunt: “I just went with the guys I thought could get us back in the game.”
When asked if an injury might have had something to do with Miller’s benching, Tocchet simply said, “No.”
To be clear, Tocchet did not deny that Miller was injured. What he denied was that any potential injury that may or may not exist had anything to do with Miller sitting in the third period.
There are a few reasons why Tocchet might bench Miller. He was largely invisible for most of the game, with zeroes right across his box score apart from going 5-for-7 on faceoffs. He didn’t have a single shot attempt, let alone a shot on goal.
There were also a couple of specific moments in the game that one could point to as benchable offences.
But really, this feels like it’s been a long time coming. Miller has struggled for several games, even as he’s picked up points along the way. It certainly feels like Miller is playing through an injury but, as we saw with the backlash when Elias Pettersson at the end of last season, Tocchet won’t let an injury be an excuse.
The truth is, the Canucks need both Miller and Pettersson to be on top of their games. Early in the season, Pettersson was struggling while Miller was clicking. Now Pettersson is finding his game just as Miller has faded away.
Is it too much to ask for both to play well simultaneously? It evidently was when I watched this game.
- You never want to lose to the last-place team in the NHL, so here’s the good news: because the Predators won, they’re no longer in last place! In fact, they vaulted all the way up to 27th. Doesn’t this loss feel better now?
- This was the first time this season the Canucks were playing on back-to-back nights but that doesn’t really work as an excuse for this performance considering the Predators were also playing their third game in four nights. As far as fatigue goes, that pretty much evens out.
- This was a brutal night for the defence pairing of Carson Soucy and Tyler Myers — a statement that could be used for far too many games this season. They repeatedly got hemmed into the defensive zone when they were on the ice together at 5-on-5 and they were also part of the struggling penalty kill. Like my cheap bluetooth earbuds and my phone, the pairing simply is not working.
- That duo was on for the opening goal from the Predators at the end of a tough shift for Soucy. First, he got walked by Roman Josi, who set up Michael McCarron for a grade-A chance that Kevin Lankinen stopped. Then, after Myers blocked a point shot, Soucy went fishing for the puck instead of boxing out Zachary L’Heureux as he came out from behind the net. When Cole Smith swiped the puck to L’Heureux, he had an open net for his first career NHL goal.
- Soucy and Myers were split up for portions of the second and third periods. The trouble was, they dragged down their new partners. Shot attempts were 10-to-3 for the Predators with Soucy and Filip Hronek together at 5-on-5; they were 6-to-2 for the Predators with Myers and Quinn Hughes together at 5-on-5. The Canucks had to reunite Soucy and Myers just to prevent Hughes and Hronek from being completely neutralized.
- As the veterans struggled, two younger players tied up the game. Aatu Räty won a faceoff in the offensive zone — he went 10-for-13 on faceoffs — and Danton Heinen sent the puck back to Erik Brännström. The could-have-been-claimed-on-waivers-by-any-team defenceman immediately wheeled into the middle of the ice and flung the puck towards the net, with Räty getting a piece of the puck to tip it through Juuse Saros’s legs for his first as a Canuck.
- “[Räty], especially the faceoffs, I think he was 7-and-0 on the left dot,” said Tocchet. “He was giving us a chance there. It was good that he scored.”
- Brännström and Räty nearly connected again in the second period on a strong fourth-line shift. Brännström shook free of Cole Smith with a slick spin off the boards, then Räty rotated into the left faceoff circle and took a backhand pass from Brännström for a quality chance that forced a glove save from Saros. It was a delight to see that kind of skating from a defenceman not named Quinn Hughes.
- Let’s remember that Brännström was a throw-in on a cap-dump trade and the Canucks waived him. Now he’s arguably the Canucks’ third-best defenceman and that really depends on how highly you think of Filip Hronek.
- “I liked Brännström tonight,” said Tocchet. “I thought he really tried.” High praise.
- The Canucks took the lead on a vintage Elias Pettersson one-timer on the power play. Jonathan Lekkerimäki made a great read on the boards to pick off a puck and sent it down to Conor Garland, who drove to the net and passed it off to Pettersson. He didn’t shoot immediately with L’Heureux sliding into his shooting lane but a quick back-and-forth with Hughes put the puck in Pettersson’s wheelhouse to hammer it home like .
- After a questionable icing call and Nils Höglander accidentally swatting the puck into the stands with his glove, the Predators tied things up on the power play. Tyler Myers and Filip Hronek completely failed to take away the shooting lane and Steve Stamkos — who is off to a rough start in Nashville but is still, y’know, Steve Stamkos — sniped the puck top corner past Lankinen.
- Kiefer Sherwood had a glorious chance to restore the Canucks’ lead on a breakaway. Appropriately, it came after a big hit, as he took Tommy Novak out of the play, leaving him with a clearcut breakaway from the blue line in. Unfortunately, he completely whiffed on the shot and probably had to immediately remove himself from every group chat with his former Predators teammates to avoid being roasted.
- The whiff was one thing. The real issue is that Sherwood then tried to force a bad angle shot when he and his linemates had been on the ice for over a minute, instead of holding the puck in deep to facilitate a line change. The Predators broke the other way and essentially had a 5-on-3 off the rush. That’s why Roman Josi had all kinds of space to rip a one-timer past Lankinen to make it 3-2.
- That was the turning point of the game but the Canucks could have gone into the third period only down by one if not for another Predators power play in the final minute after a Garland penalty. Jonathan Marchessault set up Stamkos for his second power play goal of the game to make it 4-2.
- “Obviously, it’s a dumb penalty at the end of the period there, kind of gave them a two-goal lead,” said Garland. “It’s hard to come back, especially to a team we played in the playoffs. Kind of similar to Game 5 here, we had a bunch of chances late but they block a lot of shots. They pack the house and they’re hard to score on, especially when they have a lead like that.”
- It was a bad penalty-killing sequence for Miller, who might have only been on the ice for faceoff duty, as he hasn’t been a primary penalty killer for the Canucks this season. Although he lost the faceoff, he still got the puck out and sent it the length of the ice but then didn’t go for a line change to bring on someone like Pius Suter or Teddy Blueger. Historically speaking, Miller has been one of the Canucks’ worst penalty killers for years now. Even just last season, he was on the ice for the highest-rate of goals of any Canuck penalty killer.
- Miller then simply stopped moving his feet to take away passing and shooting lanes, first giving up a free one-timer to Filip Forsberg, then failed to pressure Marchessault or get in the passing lanes to either Forsberg in the bumper or Stamkos cross-ice. Worse, he kept yelling “Petey!” and trying to direct Pettersson where to go instead of focusing on his own job. I’m not going to lie, I found this entire shift utterly infuriating.
- Miller played just two shifts after that in the third period. The second shift came on the power play and ended with this moment where Miller could have tried to close off the boards and block the clearing attempt but instead just turned and started skating toward the bench. It’s not hard to imagine that Tocchet might have considered that a benchable offence.
- Here’s the thing: Miller is better than this. When he’s dialed in and driving play, he’s a force to be reckoned with. But we’ve also seen what happens when Miller is off his game. He’s an emotional, heart-on-his-sleeve guy and that can lead to getting frustrated, giving up on plays, and yelling at teammates. Tocchet’s tough love in this game is likely aimed at getting Miller back to the beast that he’s capable of being.
- Sherwood made up for his earlier whiff on the breakaway to bring the Canucks within one. Myers sent a stretch pass ahead to Danton Heinen and he slipped the puck to Sherwood in the high slot and he ripped a one-timer over Saros’s glove faster than .
- It felt like Tocchet made a crucial coaching error in the final minutes of the game as the team pushed for the tying goal. The Canucks had an offensive zone faceoff with two minutes left, which was arguably the perfect time for a timeout to rest the Canucks’ top players and put them out together. Instead, Tocchet sent out the fourth line with Hughes and Hronek. That meant when the Canucks pulled Lankinen for the extra attacker a minute later and brought on Pettersson’s line, Hughes left the ice on the line change. It was a wasted opportunity to have Pettersson and Hughes on the ice at the same time in a crucial moment.
- Honestly, for the first time this season, I would say that Hughes looked tired. It make sense: he played 27:25 in this game, including 9:39 in the third period as the Canucks pushed for the comeback. With Soucy struggling and Brännström yet to fully earn Tocchet’s trust against tough competition, it falls to Hughes to play .
- The Canucks looked discombobulated the entire time with the empty net and then it ended with Gustav Nyquist scoring from the defensive zone. **
- Ugh.
