Thursday, March 31, 2011

Why Ryan Miller Is Disliked By Some Sabres Fans

Nothing earth-shattering, but in a classic, "what have you done for me lately/the grass is greener"-scenario, the play of Sabres back-up, Jhonas Enroth, has given fuel to the ever-present, "Ryan Miller is average and not worth his salary" contingency.


Ryan Miller

 This is nothing new, it's been going on all year. The Miller-hate/dislike always peaks after a Sabres loss. This time it grew after Enroth shut out the NY Rangers 1-0 Wednesday night while Miller was out with an injury (or if you go to the end, a "fake injury").

Jhonas Enroth
All the talk is about Enroth, and it should be, because of him the Sabres are presently in a playoff position and could end up as high as 6th in the conference. He's been playing very well.

Sabres fans and the media tend to get a little overzealous, at times, and there's talk of Enroth supplanting Miller. WGR's, Mike Schopp, tried to get Sabres beat-reporter Paul Hamilton to commit to the concept, but Hamilton shot him down (the same thing happened when Schopp wanted Lindy Ruff to be held accountable [read:  fired] earlier in the year) without giving the matter a second thought.

The internet's where the fun is as fans chime in on everything. The Enroth/Miller "debate" is interesting, if not amusing at this point, at least in my opinion.

Sports fans usually have a short memory. Before the Toronto game, Miller had two shutouts--both 1-0--at Montreal and vs. New Jersey. Sandwiched in between was a 4-2 victory against Florida. But it was the loss to Toronto that pulled out the pitch-forks and torches.

Meh, whatever. So we delve into the morass with a composite of posts concerning Ryan Miller taken from a hockey-rumor site Wednesday, March 31:

Again.....Miller is so way overrated by many on here Indy......... You know Pairo...For 6.3 million I expect Hasek like performances every night and Vezina trophies every year...

i have hasek/Roy expectations for a goalie making over 6 mil a year.. i don't expect him to save them all (i am realistic) but for what he is supposed to be valued as i don't feel he fills his end of the bargain... All that being said at this point if i had to chose i would probably pick him over Ewok (Enroth).. for now


And I would too but I only base that on Ewok's limited body of work. God forbid Miller DID get hurt for the better part of a full season and Ewok put up a 2.5 GAA and a .910 save percentage while he played, If I'm GM I seriously consider making the change permanent and taking what I can in trade for Miller.


I actually have that mindset now. If Darcy could get a couple top 6 forwards and a pick/prospect (obviously it would depend on which top 6's are coming back) I think long and hard on that deal...


my reason for keeping miller at this point is also based upon the body of work only.. However if you can move miller for a top 6 forward or top 2 D i would do it... go get another back up goalie or young up and comer at a low cost (maybe JSG or Lindback) split the time in goal. As you said solid D and timely scoring seems to mean more..


(out come the stats):


Year GP W L GAA SV%
2002-03 15 6 8 2.63 .902
2003-04 3 0 3 5.06 .795
2005-06 48 30 14 2.60 .914
2006-07 63 40 16 2.73 .911
2007-08 76 36 27 2.64 .906
2008-09 59 34 18 2.53 .918
2009-10 47 29 12 2.10 .932
2010-11 32 21 8 2.62 .914

Which one is least like the rest? when will people start to understand last year was the OFF year.. the Stats do not LIE..

aside from the start of last season til the all star break, every year for miller is an off year


i do not understand how so many people are blind to the truth.. him looking good before was smoke and mirrors because they were scoring at will and winning when they had briere and drury.. then last year he stood on his head and now he is back to what he was before but our offense is not.. He has always been a slightly above average goalie that some how is the face of the american hockey.

I don't know how easy it would be to get rid of him, so i think we will have to get used to seeing him back there

Conspiracy Theory Alert!

Ryan Miller faked the injury against the Rangers because he is afraid of making this year his worst loss percentage of his career.


http://sports.yahoo.com/n...K_D8vtqAvHNomVFI3UHVivLYF


A loss last night would have put him on par with his record during the 2007-08 season - the worst of is career and the year the Sabres finished 10th in the conference.


He opted to play against TO to play for the "easy" win. He played poorly, realized he wouldn't be able to play his best against the Rangers, and instead of taking a likely loss, let Enroth play to not make this the worst season of his career.



My take on Ryan Miller:
http://buffalosabresnow.blogspot.com/2011/01/trade-ryan-miller.html
http://buffalosabresnow.blogspot.com/2011/02/despite-trend-ryan-miller-stays.html



Big thanx to my buzzard friends, though...Solid!!!





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