OTTAWA — It was easy for J.T. Miller to remember what he felt like before Game 1 of the Rangers’ first-round series against the Canadiens, and it wasn’t great.
“I was kind of so excited the first game to go do something I kind of was more passive, and I wanted it to happen more than made it happen,” Miller said. “But I thought after that, I had a good Game 2 and I got better as the series went on.”
The fact is that the Rangers need more out of Miller when they start their second-round series against the Senators on Thursday night at Canadian Tire Centre. It was not lost on Miller that his penchant for trying high-risk passes with the puck would play right into the hands of the patient Senators, who trap in the neutral zone and prey on the opposition’s mistakes.
“I like to make plays and it definitely gets me in trouble sometimes because I think I see a lot of stuff on the ice that I can make happen,” Miller said. “I definitely have to read the situation, especially against a team like Ottawa that is really going to clog you up in the neutral zone. So you definitely have to make a play when available.”
It has been this way for most of Miller’s career, as the 24-year-old is in his fifth pro season and he continues to toe the line between not making mistakes and trying to make plays. He was one of the Blueshirts’ best forwards throughout the regular season, bringing a physical edge while still totaling 56 points, good for second on the team.
Whereas coach Alain Vigneault might be able to deal with the occasional mistake in the regular season — well, deal with it in the sense that Miller was only demoted to the fourth line twice — these are the mistakes that can lose playoff games and, ultimately, series.
“He’s very aware of the plays he needs to make with the puck, and the plays he needs to make when he doesn’t have it,” said Vigneault, who also couldn’t avoid bringing up Miller’s nonsensical slashing penalty near the end of regulation in Game 5 against the Canadiens that almost cost them a game they would win in overtime.
“[He’s aware of] the penalties at this time that we can live with, and the penalties that are ones we’d rather stay away from. He’s a smart young man and he’s going through another playoff experience. I believe he’s going to be better in this second playoff round than he was in the first one.”
It seems to have helped that Vigneault created a line with Miller, Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello, beginning with Game 4. Miller has played very rarely with Zuccarello over the past few years, but they seem to have found a way to make plays, including Zuccarello’s series-clinching goal in Game 6.
“I thought once me, Zucc and Hayesy played together, we did some good things, we established some good habits,” Miller said. “I thought we started to learn our tendencies a little more. [Zuccarello] isn’t a guy that I’ve played with very often, neither is Hayesy. I felt we did well together, and I’m looking forward to how that’s going to look in the first game.”