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The Penguins were skating off the ice on Friday night and jawing at Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller. The game, which ended as a 5-1 loss for Pittsburgh, was frustrating for the visitors — entering the second intermission, it was a 4-0 onslaught in favor of the Rangers — but Miller was frustrating them as well.
The 22-year-old defenseman, in his second NHL season, does not have the star power of Adam Fox or the name brand of Jacob Trouba, but he has made himself integral to the Rangers’ top four. Here are a few of his numbers from the victory over the Penguins: 22:38 time on ice, a hit, a block, plus-2. Pittsburgh had just six scoring chances against at five-on-five while Miller was on the ice.
And yes, a solid 6:04 of those minutes came against Sidney Crosby, per Natural Stat Trick, a matchup in which Miller didn’t back down and ended up coming out on top.
“He seems to get better every game,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said following practice Saturday.
Heading into the Rangers’ match Sunday against the Sabres, Miller and Trouba have played a hair over 1,020 minutes together, the most of any duo in the NHL, per MoneyPuck, with a handy 55.8 percent goals for share.
“Trouba’s been really good for him and he’s a young kid,” Gallant said. “He joins the rush, he makes good offensive plays and he’s playing solid and he’s getting more physical defensively. So we like his growth.”
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Compared to last season, when Miller, a Wisconsin product, played 53 games for the Rangers, the boxscore numbers aren’t that different. The impact is, however, and Miller has made strides in taking care of himself away from the ice. He’s eating better, stretching more and feeling the difference.
“Probably just confidence with the puck,” Miller said when asked about his biggest area of improvement. “I’ve been able to use my speed and my body a little bit more lately in the second half, so I think that’s been giving me a little bit extra boost and the confidence to do it a little bit more.”
The offensive output still has yet to click into place — Miller’s 14 points in 65 games this season leave an obvious area for improvement.
“It’s coming,” Miller said. “That’s all I can really say right now, it’s coming. Obviously it’s frustrating every once in a while not putting up the points, but I think that stuff will come with good play.”
Still, the growth of his game in other places, in such a short time, is a massive reason for encouragement. Asked Saturday to compare the pressure he feels to that of former top pick Alexis Lafreniere, Miller posited that it was about the same.
Left unsaid is that Miller, a former 22nd-overall pick, has coped better than the former No. 1 pick.
“Being obviously in college for those two years prepared me to make this jump and I think the guys that we have around the locker room are a great support system,” Miller said. “We have great guys in that locker room that you can talk to and break down the game with. So I think that’s one of the biggest things for me is learning from the older guys with experience and growing that into my game.”
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