Review: Pre-Season Thoughts On The Coming Year + Current Status

[C.S.Strowbridge]

I think Demko was a good pick. He was the best goalie in the draft and he has a shot at being a star number one. Plus, he's a goalie and they take a long time to develop. He won't be playing in the NHL for six years. By that time, Miller will be gone and it is possible Lack will have become our number one or he may have already signed with another team.

[tyhee]

Everything you said was decent but I disagree with your miller comment. I think he definitely deserves a higher grade than D. He has played solid in net and his contract will be up once Lack or Markstrom is ready to be a full time starter. I'd give the singing by Benning a B+, and Miller's play a B

Since my opinion was and still is the same as the original poster's on the decision to sign Miller, I'll take issue with this comment.

There are really two things at issue here. One is Miller's play, the other is the management's decision to sign him.

1. Miller's play etc

Miller is a hard worker, intelligent, by anything that I've seen a good teammate and the kind of person the Canucks want in the locker room. He's bailed the team out a few times and been bailed out by the team a few times-such as last night against Edmonton.

Other than wins, his stats so far are most un-Miller-like. In fact, they're terrible. They also aren't an illusion. There have been quite a few goals Miller would like to have back.

That maybe shouldn't be overly surprising. I could be wrong here, but it has seemed to me that Miller is most comfortable playing a standup, challenge the shooters style but is working with a goaltender coach who favours the butterfly and staying back in the net. That's resulted in a bit of a hybrid and when Miller has been comfortable with his style he's had some outstanding games. At other times, his style has been the worst of all worlds. I thought the first Edmonton goal last night was an example. It wasn't a soft goal, but it was one that if he'd challenged the shooter (as he did) and stayed on his feet it might have hit him. If he'd stayed back in the net in his butterfly he'd have had a reasonable chance of stopping it. Moving out to challenge while on his knees looked to me like the worst of all worlds.

I'm not going to pretend to be very knowledgeable about goalie technique. I've given my take on that goal but invite others who actually know goalie technique to let me know if I'm off base there.

Anyway, one might expect Miller's consistency to improve markedly as he gets more comfortable with whatever technique he and Melanson end up having him use. Personally I expect him to play well the last half of this season.

His play so far deserves a poor grade, though. I don't expect that to continue, but the .900 save % and 2.74 GAA are reasonably reflective of his play so far. When he's been good he's been very very good, and when he's been bad ...

2. The decision to sign Miller

With this I did and do agree completely with the original poster and disagree with the comment from hatedkid quoted above. I thought the Lack/Markstrom ready to play now. They weren't last year because Markstrom's technique was weak, but with no less an authority than Melanson indicating he'd worked hard and was ready, Lack would no longer be in the position of playing every game and Markstrom was ready to be a capable backup.

Lack played extremely well last year when he wasn't playing every night with a crumbling team in front of him. He was absolutely lights out this preseason (67/68 shots stopped, wasn't it?) There's every reason to think he'd be a good starter.

Markstrom's technique is markedly improved from last year and his play in the AHL has exceeded by far anything he's done before. He'd never had a GAA below 2.32 in the AHL previously. He's presently at 1.24, with a save % of .955. It would be silly to expect those numbers to continue but he's been VERY impressive.

In January Lack will turn 27 and Markstrom will turn 25. Hatedkid has said "his contract will be up once Lack or Markstrom is ready to be a full time starter" and that strikes me as way off. Lack will be 29 and Markstrom 27 (turning 30 and 28 in mid-season) when Miller's contract expires. It doesn't take until almost the age of 30 to develop into an NHL starter.

Lack is in the position this year of playing even less than he did with Lu as the starter. Obviously he's found it tough to stay ready while not playing for a week and a half to two weeks at a time. The life of a very seldom-used backup is different-while Miller is getting lots of play to get himself sharp, Lack is getting far less and is having to try to stay sharp without playing. Hopefully nobody will be silly enough to suggest that Lack's stats would be the same as they are if he were playing regularly.

There were also alternatives if it was considered necessary to sign a veteran goalie. Hiller was available for less money and a shorter term, for example.