J.T. Miller's status up in the air for Tuesday's game in Chicago

You don't need to tell Vancouver Canucks fans just how important J.T. Miller is to their team. He led the Canucks last season with a career-high 103 points and over the last three seasons combined, he is 10th among all NHL players with 284 points.

With this in mind, even a potential absence for Miller would be a reason for some concern among anyone connected to the Canucks, no matter how much of a team game hockey is. However, this is exactly the scenario facing the Canucks.

As per NHL.com, the 31-year-old is questionable to face the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday evening at the United Center, in the final game of the Canucks' four-game road trip. This is due to an injury he suffered on Saturday night in Philadelphia, against the Flyers.

An early but temporary exit

In fact, Miller sustained said injury after taking the game-opening face-off, and was forced to go back to the locker room right away. He did return shortly after, but only took one more face-off during the rest of the game.

Some people might argue that the fact the 2024 NHL All-Star continued to play, means there's nothing to worry about. However, consider that he only attempted one shot on goal in the entire game.

This is not to indicate Miller wasn't still putting in the effort by the way; just that his usual performance was compromised by the injury he suffered. Regardless, the Canucks and their fans now wait to see if he will be on the ice against the Blackhawks come game time on Tuesday evening.

Tocchet discusses Miller's injury

Canucks coach Rick Tocchet spoke to the media about the situation surrounding one of his most influential players. As per NHL.com, he said: "He's dealing with some stuff. We'll figure it out over the next couple days, but we didn't want him to take draws."

For what it's worth, Tocchet believes Miller will play on Tuesday evening, but knows better than to take anything for granted. He said: "I expect that, but you never know. He'll get a couple days off to rest it and (we'll) see where it goes."

As an (un)edcuated guess, the worst-case scenario would seem to be Miller missing one game. Although that in itself would be an extremely rare situation for a tough and durable player, who has only missed four combined games over the three previous regular seasons for the Canucks.

Again, this is a player who is extremely important to the Canucks, and is also finally getting more well-deserved recognition around the NHL in general. In addition, you can make the case he is underrated for how clutch he is, with his overtime winner against the Florida Panthers last Thursday evening tying him for the most in the NHL since he joined the Canucks in 2019-20, with 10 such goals.

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