The mystery of J.T. Miller’s recent, steady slide down the Rangers depth-chart ladder to fourth-line status for Tuesday’s 4-3 victory over the Senators has been solved, and by none other than Alain Vigneault.
To create balance in the absence of Rick Nash (and Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich)?
Nope.
To allow Jimmy Vesey to play up with more offense-minded players?
Not that, either.
“Performance-based,” the coach said of the winger on whom he has habitually lavished tough love since the start of their working relationship in 2013. “We’re working quite a bit with J.T. to improve some of his decisions with the puck. He’s got a tremendous amount of confidence in his ability and in himself, but sometimes the play on the ice demands the high-percentage play.
“You can’t force things that are not there. As much as we like the offensive looks that he’s getting, the ratio of chances for and against needs to be better. There are too many things being forced, and not just in our zone.
“It got to the point where we had to cut his ice time a little bit.”
Hence, after playing up much of the season on a unit with penalty-kill partner Kevin Hayes, there Miller was on Tuesday primarily skating with Marek Hrivik and Brandon Pirri. And, as has been the case the last handful of matches, there was Miller supplanted on the second power-play unit by Matt Puempel.
Seriously now, who would you rather have on with the man advantage? But Miller is only 11th among forwards and 14th overall in average power-play ice time (1:21 per) for the season, anyway, and there are lessons to be taught and learned in this consistent push/pull between the coach and the 2011 first-rounder.
Miller might well have been the Blueshirts’ best forward through the season’s first quarter, combining a physical edge with production (18 points in 20 games) and outstanding work on the penalty kill with Hayes as his partner. But the winger’s game and production have tailed off (zero points in the last seven games, four points over the last 17) in conjunction with the chicken-and-egg decrease in ice time.
Though the Chris Kreider-Derek Stepan-Mats Zuccarello unit is the only line clicking as the Blueshirts embark on a two-game western trip that begins Thursday in Arizona before concluding Saturday in Colorado, it does not seem as if Vigneault is in any hurry to reinstate Miller to top-six/nine status.
Top-six/nine wasn’t an issue when the Rangers were healthy though the earlier portion of the season and could roll four lines of uncommonly balanced talent. Lately, though, there has been a distinct divide with the Blueshirts presenting a more traditional scoring/checking alignment.
With Vesey and Michael Grabner assigned spots on Hayes’ wing, that has left Miller — who had two glorious shorthanded chances against Ottawa while working with Hayes — on the outside looking in. The situation will change when Nash returns, most likely within a week, but, again, not necessarily so for Miller.
“J.T., like Kevin, has the potential to play as a top-nine with that talent, and if so that makes us a real good team,” Vigneault said. “Whether it’s top-six, top-nine, however you want to slot it there, but I believe he can be more consistent than he’s shown in the last little while.”