J.T. Miller’s return to the Rangers has benefited Mika Zibanejad
In defeating the Boston Bruins on Wednesday, the New York Rangers improved to 2-1-0 since the arrival of J.T. Miller. Along the way, Miller has picked up four points in three games, while his presence has also reinvigorated fellow forward Mika Zibanejad, now with one goal and five assists in his last three outings.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk chatted about Miller’s impact on the Rangers, a club that now finds itself within four points of a playoff position in the Eastern Conference.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Let’s go out to New York where the Rangers picked up another win, and a pretty impressive one. J.T. Miller, we talked about it after his first two games in that he seemed to be fitting in really well. That trend has kind of continued. I love that video of him with Mika Zibanejad, Adam Fox, and Artemi Panarin before a powerplay. He is drawing up plays and telling everybody where he wants them to go. He’s sliding in great. And the way – I don’t know if you want to call it an unintended ripple effect of this – Zibanejad has played since moving over to the right wing, he has six points in three games. Man, that’s a really nice perk for the Rangers. Yes, you added J.T. Miller, and holy crap, you basically added back the old Mika Zibanejad.
Frank Seravalli: It just takes so much pressure off, right? No longer does Mika Zibanejad have to be the driver. He can go back to being a complementary piece, and a really well paid and expensive one at that. But when he is on, he is incredibly productive. Not only that, but the biggest glaring weakness was that Zibanejad, in my opinion, couldn’t play the style that they needed for a center, in that role. Miller has the compete level to do it. Beyond that, I think for a team that really lacked juice, the Rangers get that in Miller. It’s not just the production. These things that we’re seeing Miller do, this is what he used to do with the Vancouver Canucks, like drawing up plays. His head is so focused in the game and he wants to win so badly that you can’t help but have that be infectious with the rest of the team.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here: