Why was Miller taken off Vancouver Canucks top power-play unit?

When the Vancouver Canucks received their first energy play final night time, the same old suspects hopped over the boards.

Quinn Hughes, Elias Pettersson, and a smattering of different forwards received prepared for the offensive zone draw. When the puck dropped, everybody shortly realized that J.T. Miller was not in his regular spot. As a substitute, head coach Rick Tocchet stored him with the second unit all through the sport.

“It’s simply one thing we’ve all talked about, Millsy and the opposite unit knew what was happening so there was nothing to that,” stated Tocchet.

Whereas Tocchet could have been fast to gloss over the choice, it’s odd to not see Miller on the highest unit. It’s an fascinating chess transfer by the bench boss and price inspecting even when it’s short-term and Miller takes again his spot subsequent sport, a really actual chance.

The 31-year-old has been a key element of the Canucks energy play ever since he arrived in Vancouver, particularly in recent times. He has 76 power-play factors for the reason that begin of the 2022-23 season, greater than any Canucks participant aside from Quinn Hughes and he’s seventeenth amongst all NHL forwards in power-play factors in that point.

The crew failed to attain on their two energy performs final night time with out Miller on the primary unit.

The personnel change comes on the again of Tocchet expressing his displeasure with how they carried out within the earlier sport towards the Boston Bruins.

“We went rogue somewhat bit… What occurs with that unit when issues don’t go our approach? We begin turning into people. It occurred final yr,” stated Tocchet following the 5-1 shellacking.

“For essentially the most half, the ability play has really been fairly good recently, the final two to a few weeks, we simply went again in that mode.”

“One thing didn’t work early after which swiftly, we begin attempting to be people. You possibly can’t be people, even if you’re down three nothing.”

That Bruins sport was one in every of Miller’s first again within the lineup. The 2-to-three-week interval Tocchet referenced coincides with the time Miller was away from the crew on private depart. The membership was utilizing Pettersson, Hughes, Conor Garland, Brock Boeser, and Jake DeBrusk as their prime power-play unit and the outcomes have been higher than anticipated.

The Canucks transformed on 25.8% of their energy performs whereas Miller was away from the crew, just a few factors higher than the 23.3% mark they’ve for the entire season.

If they’ll sustain that share on a Miller-less prime unit, the left-handed centre can then assist present a soar to the second unit. This may theoretically give the crew two harmful teams that may every rating, whereas not going with a totally balanced method which the crew has experimented with over the previous yr.

It stays to be seen how lengthy Tocchet retains Miller off the highest unit. He might be again subsequent sport in his regular spot. For now, it seems the top coach noticed one thing he appreciated with out the veteran on the highest unit and is ready to experiment because the season goes on.

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