J.T. Miller has been one of the loudest voices for the New York Rangers all season dating back to October. And rightfully so. He's playing for a team laden with potential. One that has two remarkable goaltenders and some of the best point-producers in hockey, like Artemi Panarin.
The problem? Following Tuesday night's loss to the Vancouver Canucks, the Rangers have now been shut out seven times this season. Want to feel even worse? They have played in 35 games, so opponents are shutting them out a whopping 20 percent of the time.
But it's not for overall bad or uninspiring play. That's what has J.T. Miller so furious. Following that shutout loss to the Canucks, Miller said, "I'm not concerned, I'm just (angry). You feel like you work so hard and you make a lot of plays, and a lot of nights we feel like we're outplaying the other team and we end up in here (angry) because we didn't score enough goals."
That's a gut punch. Nobody knows this team better than Miller, who sees the Blueshirts' work ethic every time they take the ice for practice, the enthusiasm before games, and the chances they create while goaltenders Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick keep the Rangers in games.
J.T. Miller's frustrations are justified following yet another shutout loss
For someone like Miller, who knows this experienced hockey team has more talent than it has shown all season, especially offensively, he has every right to be angry. That same Canucks team the Blueshirts played last night traded Miller to New York, where he returned, thinking he'd be the missing piece this team needed.
Instead, the Rangers are 30-28-7 since his return when he's in the lineup, with 67 points in those 65 games. Across 82 games, that's between 84 and 85 points, not enough to earn a playoff berth in the Eastern Conference. In 19 of those contests, they scored one or fewer goals, or 29.7 percent of all games.
What makes this even more frustrating for Miller is that, given the Rangers' solid play overall that he implied in the above quote, they're not winning in the only stat that matters when the final horn blows: Scoring more goals than the other team.
Miller understands that the Rangers can keep outplaying opponents. They can play a better game against anyone for all 60 minutes of any contest. But if they don't end games with more goals than the other team, then outplaying the competition is meaningless. Miller knows that, and it's why he's once again talking about how frustrating this season has been.