TORONTO — It takes an awful lot to knock a player like Kevan Miller out of a contest.
A bruising blue liner who has averaged 103 blocks and 149 hits over the past three seasons, Miller doesn’t think twice when it comes to putting his body between a puck and the net, nor does he usually let a heavy check or high stick send him down the tunnel.
Following Saturday’s win over the Canadiens, Miller categorized a game in which he took a spear below the belt and blocked four shots as “a blast.”
Yep, he’s that kind of player.
Which is what made Miller’s hasty exit during Monday’s game against Toronto all the more concerning.
In the closing minutes of the opening stanza, Miller and his D partner John Moore hovered in front of Jaroslav Halak near the crease — serving as the next line of defense for a charging John Tavares.
The Leafs center’s wrister did not reach Boston’s net, with the puck hitting Miller square in the throat — prompting the defenseman to leave the ice following Travis Dermott's opening salvo seconds later.
Miller did not return to the contest for the final two periods, with the defenseman sent to the hospital to assess the injury.
“Miller, looks like X-rays are negative,”
Bruce Cassidy
said postgame. “Got it in the throat. They’re going to keep him overnight for observation to make sure his breathing stays normal. Hopefully he’s able to fly back tomorrow and join us and be hopefully no worse for the wear. Where it goes from that, I don’t know if there’s a timeline on when he’s back in Thursday — I don’t know if it’s that simple, but right now, he’s out of any danger.”
Miller and the Bruins appear to have dodged a bullet in the wake of the freak injury, even if his exact timetable for a return has yet to be determined.
On a Bruins’ D corps already missing
Zdeno Chara
,
Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo
and
Urho Vaakanainen
, Miller has been a steadying presence — logging an average of 24:14 TOI over his last three games.
Oh, and prior to that stretch, Miller was out of commission for 13 games — the result of breaking his hand while a blocking a shot against the Oilers back on Oct. 18.
“He’s a well-conditioned man, for one thing, and it showed in his first two games back,” Cassidy said. “We needed him to play heavy minutes. He’s still working through his injury, obviously, with certain parts of his game -- puck moving, etc. But at the end of the day, he’s playing hard, making us hard to play against physically, defends well. … It says a lot about him.”
A regular presence on the B’s third D pairing when the usual suspects are all accounted for and in the lineup, Miller has not missed a step since earning top minutes over the past week, highlighted by a dominant line of 27:01 TOI, one assist, three blocks and four hits during Friday’s win over the Penguins.
In that tilt, Miller was often matched up with the Crosby line, with Pittsburgh’s top forward trio of
Jake Guentzel, Patric Hornqvist
and No. 87 held off the scoresheet and limited to one high-danger scoring bid during the over 16 minutes of five-on-five time in which Miler accounted for thm.
“He’s blue collar,”
Torey Krug
said of Miller. “Does a lot of the work that a lot of guys aren’t willing to. Brings a lot to the table in that regard. Obviously we need a guy like that on a nightly basis. He’s always willing to put his body on the line.”
Minute eaters such as Carlo and McAvoy are inching closer and closer to a return, but the last couple of games have highlighted the impact that Miller brings to this D corps, both in terms of the checks and hard-nosed play he delivers on the ice and the respect he has earned in the B’s locker room.
Even with Monday’s concerning development, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if Miller is back in his role as the muscle of the B’s blue line sooner rather later.
“He wants to get back in,” Cassidy recalled of Miller’s recovery from his broken hand. “He would have played two weeks ago if the doctors would have let him, he’s that kind of guy.”
