JT Miller is injured. It’s clear as day to anyone watching the Rangers play. It’s tougher to follow on TV because of camera angles, but in attendance last night it was obvious that he’s laboring and is nowhere near one hundred percent. Stating that JT Miller is injured isn’t some kind of earth shattering news, and it’s probably something neither player nor team will admit until the season is done, but it’s also clear that he is a shell of what the Rangers acquired just 14 months ago. Father Time doesn’t come that quickly.
Watching from the stands last night, Miller just wasn’t himself. This isn’t about his postgame quotes or his general attitude, which are separate issues that have been discussed regularly. This is about the physical aspects and how he moved on the ice. To be gentle, it’s clear JT Miller is injured. He can’t pivot effectively, his skating looks labored, and he’s shying away from areas of the ice that he would normally dominate.
We can argue all day and night about the trade, his attitude, his quotes, whether he should be captain, and all the other topics that have come up. What we can’t argue about is whether or not JT Miller is injured. He is. The Rangers were this bad last year too, when the Rangers traded for him. But Miller still put up a point per game and looked far more engaged on the ice.
Now he’s barely able to keep up on a rush, he can’t back check at all, his edgework looks like me out there, and his shot is nowhere near as quick, accurate, or hard as it used to be. All of this points to the one obvious truth that neither player nor team will admit: JT Miller is injured.
And now we have a funny catch-22 for the Rangers. Ideally they keep losing for draft position, and forcing Miller into the lineup is clearly helping that. But a healthy Miller next season is critical if there’s going to be a quick turnaround, which means sitting him and perhaps having the Rangers win more with him out of the lineup. We all know JT Miller is injured, so it’s just a matter of which path the Rangers take.