The Canuck Way
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Canucks Recap: Three stars of the week (Mar 13th – 19th)

By Zaahid Lalani

VANCOUVER, BC - MARCH 13: Goalie Thatcher Demko #35 of the Vancouver Canucks makes a save against the Edmonton Oilers during the second period of NHL action at Rogers Arena on March 13, 2021 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images)
VANCOUVER, BC - MARCH 13: Goalie Thatcher Demko #35 of the Vancouver Canucks makes a save against the Edmonton Oilers during the second period of NHL action at Rogers Arena on March 13, 2021 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images) /
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JT Miller and Brock Boeser of the Vancouver Canucks. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images)
JT Miller and Brock Boeser of the Vancouver Canucks. (Photo by Rich Lam/Getty Images) /

2. J.T. Miller

Simply put, J.T. Miller has been clutch this past week.

The team entered Saturday’s contest still without the services of elite sniper Elias Pettersson, who appears to be battling a possible wrist injury, which meant that the Canucks needed to fill the centre void on their first line once again.

Miller, who previously played that position during his tenures with the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning, had been slotting into the number one centre role for the past four games, so it was no surprise that head coach Travis Green didn’t tweak his line combinations going into the game against Connor McDavid and company.

Miller registered a powerplay assist to help open the scoring that night, and ended up logging just over 21 minutes en route to the team’s victory.

It appeared that Miller’s overall gameplay was improving after transitioning back to the middle and playing alongside Brock Boeser and Nils Höglander, and he was becoming the consistent offensive threat that we became accustomed to last year.

He entered Monday night’s contest only two points behind Boeser for the team lead in scoring, as well as first in team powerplay points with 14. Defensively-speaking, he was showing signs of improvement on his overall 200-foot game with hard hits and good forecheck, something he had struggled mightily with for the majority of the season thus far.

https://twitter.com/Sportsnet650/status/1373054914578935811?s=20

But, as we all know, the real excitement was about to ramp up from there.

Miller scored two overtime winners in three games to propel the Canucks to victories over the Senators and Canadiens.

First, he disposed of an Ottawa forward with ease before undressing Joey Daccord in jaw-dropping fashion, only to outshine himself four nights later with an individual, end-to-end performance for his 100th point as a Canuck that is sure to land on every highlight reel for the foreseeable future.

https://twitter.com/Canucks/status/1371638947105804291?s=20

https://twitter.com/Canucks/status/1373088004051398658?s=20

More importantly, of course, Miller’s game-winning tallies ensured that his team would be able to collect the full two points from each of those contests to aid them on their hopeful journey back into the playoff conversation.

As it stands, the Scotia North division is undoubtedly the closest division in the league, and each team knows that every point counts. It would’ve been more ideal if the Canucks had been able to take care of Ottawa and Montreal in regulation, but we all know that this team still has difficulties playing for the full 60 minutes, and it’ll take a while to fix.

Nonetheless, the Canucks can still be happy with their point accumulation on the road trip so far.

And if they end up squeaking into the playoffs by a point or two, which many expect to be the case for whichever team lands the fourth and final playoff spot, the city of Vancouver should look back on Miller’s overtime heroics as an absolute game-changer.

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