Ghost of Dwight Drane Posted February 8, 2010 Report Posted February 8, 2010 As many long time posters know.....I have a theory on Ryan Miller. My theory goes....Ryan has a little secret, and it's not the (I live on Elmwood, own a trendy men's clothing store, and host fashion shows) type of secret. I believe there is a very good chance that Ryan Miller does not have proper depth perception due to a cranial deformity in his early childhood. At first I was hesitant to come forward with this a few years ago, not because I would open myself up for ridicule (which of course is expected in half my posts), but because Miller is a genuinely nice kid and I truly feel that I am on to something. Well....Miller had his payday, so there is no real harm in revisiting.....and with the new pictures I just came across, it is even more obvious there is a situation here. While Miller has played very well this year, and his positioning for the first 45 games or so was exceptional, Miller has a history of letting in floating point shots that are seemingly harmless. He led the league in goals allowed from outside the faceoff circle by a huge margin a year ago. Everyone knows the drill. Sabres turn the puck over....a 3rd line forward or #5 defenseman brings the puck up for the opposition.....just as they cross the blue line they let a wrister go while moving...at best scoring, at worst getting it in for a line change......said floater ends up over Miller's shoulder without him even getting a piece of it. How could a guy who is seemingly so focused and in position down low let BS goals from outside go in on a regular basis? Well..it is quite possible he never developed proper depth perception. I won't rehash all the technicals, but I will point out that craniosynostosis or plagiocephaly as a young child could very well have caused Miller's misshapen head, and in turn, caused an eye problem. The old threads on this go through all the back and forth about "wouldn't the doctors know this?, How can he be a pro athlete with no depth perception?, blah blah blah"....so look up "Miller's goaltending flaw" in the archive, which by the way I did not start. Here is the new evidence... My link Go to photo #9 and #8 and make use of the amazing zoom tool. In both #9 and # 8, you will notice a scar that runs along the upper right corner of his hairline. The scar breaks apart into multiple lines, but the scar lines are consistant with the hairline. This type of scar is consistant with surgery done at an early age in the case of a cranial disorder. I understand that hockey players and people in general can get scars, but the consistancy along his right side and right along the hairline is what makes it standout. Along with the scar, you will also notice the drastic difference between the right and left side of Miller's face in #9. We rarely see Miller in a full smile, but in this case you can see the obvious discrepency in eye alignment. Notice how his right eyelid is fully swollen yet his left is not. Notice the wrinkles around his right eye, as well as the double crease on his right cheek compared to the left. Of course, the magic eyebrow. Also notice the uneven smile as Miller shows us 7 of his pearly whites on his right side, while only 3 on the left. If you move the zoomed picture to the left and right so you are only able to see one side of his face.....Miller from the left is a good looking young kid. From the right, he looks like my chainsmoking 45 year old uncle who used to have me sit on his lap, even when I was 13. Now say what you will.......but thanks to internet technology, I believe my point is a bit more validated. The few here who will do the actual legwork of looking at the two possible conditions I outlined, then the effect on eyesight and depth perception from those conditions...may see my point even clearer now. I have nothing against Miller and am not making fun of a physical deformity. Heck, I talked in a thread about having my ball chopped off at Roswell. I just think that this information is important in understanding both Miller's personality with his over the top focus, as well as his historic goaltending flaws.
Kristian Posted February 8, 2010 Report Posted February 8, 2010 I'm not saying there couldn't be something about this, however I just think his problem with pointshots come from the fact that he constantly has 4+ Sabres in the slot screening him. I believe the reason for his current dropoff is : 1. Lack of focus - The olympics mean more to Miller than he's letting on, and in the end that could end up costing him the starter job. 2. The team is playing like crap. 3. He's getting worn down. 4. He was overachieving earlier in the season, and is now underachieving. His true level lies somewhere in between.
shrader Posted February 8, 2010 Report Posted February 8, 2010 So it's only a matter of time until navybillsfan starts posting again, right?
SwampD Posted February 8, 2010 Report Posted February 8, 2010 I have it on good authority that he is actually a robot. They just put that scar there to throw people off.
Mbossy Posted February 8, 2010 Report Posted February 8, 2010 I think you are correct. Can you explain Roy's problem now?
darksabre Posted February 8, 2010 Report Posted February 8, 2010 So does this technically make Ryan Miller the best goaltender to ever play the game?
Stoner Posted February 8, 2010 Report Posted February 8, 2010 Who will star in "Ryan's Song"? Actually there was guy in a Super Bowl commercial who looked like Ryan.
Ghost of Dwight Drane Posted February 8, 2010 Author Report Posted February 8, 2010 So it's only a matter of time until navybillsfan starts posting again, right? Don't worry...I'm only hanging around because Webster offered a bet and I tried to take him up on it. He hasn't agreed to as of yet and after Sabres losses to Carolina and Columbus, I am sure he won't. I'll be gone soon.
Ghost of Dwight Drane Posted February 8, 2010 Author Report Posted February 8, 2010 I think you are correct. Can you explain Roy's problem now? Roy?.....he owns $1500 worth of hair product and pleasures himself to new episodes of Entourage. That's his problem.
Ghost of Dwight Drane Posted February 8, 2010 Author Report Posted February 8, 2010 So does this technically make Ryan Miller the best goaltender to ever play the game? It sure explains why he is one of the hardest working.
darksabre Posted February 8, 2010 Report Posted February 8, 2010 Roy?.....he owns $1500 worth of hair product and pleasures himself to new episodes of Entourage. That's his problem. :w00t:
Ghost of Dwight Drane Posted February 8, 2010 Author Report Posted February 8, 2010 I'm not saying there couldn't be something about this, however I just think his problem with pointshots come from the fact that he constantly has 4+ Sabres in the slot screening him. I believe the reason for his current dropoff is : 1. Lack of focus - The olympics mean more to Miller than he's letting on, and in the end that could end up costing him the starter job. 2. The team is playing like crap. 3. He's getting worn down. 4. He was overachieving earlier in the season, and is now underachieving. His true level lies somewhere in between. I agree with all of these points. Notice how Miller has been growing a beard the past 3 weeks? Wonder what that is for? We all know my views on Miller playing anything more than 60 or so games a year. Or any lightweight goalie for that matter. I like Miller. I am happy he has had success this year. I refuse to support the team until Larry Quinn is found in a Perry St. alley and Darcy is a WalMart greeter.
nobody Posted February 8, 2010 Report Posted February 8, 2010 What did Ghost say after the link? I got distracted by the "Allison Baver off the ice" photo gallery. Ink, you must be impressed with those thighs.
shrader Posted February 8, 2010 Report Posted February 8, 2010 I agree with all of these points. Notice how Miller has been growing a beard the past 3 weeks? Wonder what that is for? He's distracted by how itchy the damn thing is under his mask?
Stoner Posted February 8, 2010 Report Posted February 8, 2010 I agree with all of these points. Notice how Miller has been growing a beard the past 3 weeks? Wonder what that is for? We all know my views on Miller playing anything more than 60 or so games a year. Or any lightweight goalie for that matter. I like Miller. I am happy he has had success this year. I refuse to support the team until Larry Quinn is found in a Perry St. alley and Darcy is a WalMart greeter. Will the beard eventually cover the scar -- foiling the world media's attempt to expose him?
inkman Posted February 8, 2010 Report Posted February 8, 2010 What did Ghost say after the link? I got distracted by the "Allison Baver off the ice" photo gallery. Ink, you must be impressed with those thighs. I was more impressed by this body part
Stoner Posted February 8, 2010 Report Posted February 8, 2010 I was more impressed by this body part What's his name?
fiftyone Posted February 8, 2010 Report Posted February 8, 2010 A serious question here for the OP (I'm fairly new here and the reaction from most of you to this thread makes me wonder whether or not I would even have bothered responding to this had I read other posts by the OP). What, if anything, qualifies you to speak with confidence on this? I'm not trying to be a dick, I'm seriously wondering. If nothing, then how did you first come up with this idea? Did you link a point shot to the back of the net to no depth perception? To then find a scar on his head? I'm not sure if I should be freaked out or not.
Kristian Posted February 8, 2010 Report Posted February 8, 2010 A serious question here for the OP (I'm fairly new here and the reaction from most of you to this thread makes me wonder whether or not I would even have bothered responding to this had I read other posts by the OP). What, if anything, qualifies you to speak with confidence on this? I'm not trying to be a dick, I'm seriously wondering. If nothing, then how did you first come up with this idea? Did you link a point shot to the back of the net to no depth perception? To then find a scar on his head? I'm not sure if I should be freaked out or not. Well I can't speak for anyone else, but I've been here a while, and I'm sorta mildly freaked out :thumbsup:
Ghost of Dwight Drane Posted February 8, 2010 Author Report Posted February 8, 2010 A serious question here for the OP (I'm fairly new here and the reaction from most of you to this thread makes me wonder whether or not I would even have bothered responding to this had I read other posts by the OP). What, if anything, qualifies you to speak with confidence on this? I'm not trying to be a dick, I'm seriously wondering. If nothing, then how did you first come up with this idea? Did you link a point shot to the back of the net to no depth perception? To then find a scar on his head? I'm not sure if I should be freaked out or not. At least you have the guts to ask a serious question instead of many others who mock without attempting the research. My theory came about a couple years ago. It seemed that Miller let in an unusually high amount of point shots. Not just point shots, but uncontested floating point shots where he had a fairly clear view. This was backed up when Sporting News published their year end numbers of statistics, and Miller let in something to the tune of twice as many goals from beyond the faceoff circle than the average goalie and was double digits more than the closest competitor. It is obvious that something is a bit odd with Miller's face. If you look, his eyes do not line up on the same axis. So much so that the pupil of his right eye is almost an entire half of an eyeball higher on his head than his left. Many just dismissed his odd appearance as a funky eyebrow or a head tilt, but that is not true. You can see in my avatar as I leveled it off....more as a joke because of my reputation after bringing this subject up previously.....but still, it is obvious his eyes don't line up. Now....that being said, I am not a doctor or an eye specialist. I have however put hours of research into the idea, and am quite confident that at the very least, Miller had a childhood deformity. I CANNOT PROVE that he has impared depth perception as a fact. There are a few key terms that you can research on your own though to understand how this could be. Verticle Strabismus and Stereovision. While anything short of Miller telling everyone about his early childhood won't do for this crowd, you can see however that his eyes do not line up. When you see that what he has is a Verticle Strabismus.....you will also learn that depth perception, especially at distances outside of the immediate vision, can be affected. What happens is that while the normal sighted person takes 2 images from each eye and blends them into one image...thus giving them depth perception.......someone with uneven eyes may have their brain disregard the image from their weaker eye, thus going with only one image and a loss of depth perception. This can be corrected if the eyes can be brought into proper enough alignment at an early enough age. If they go too long out of alignment, or can't be brought close enough....it is likely the person will have imparement for life. The other terms that are important here are Positional Plagiocephaly and Cranialsynostosis. The first is a misshapen head caused by pressure in the womb, or even after birth with the baby's soft skull being easily molded by laying in the same position every day. This can usually be corrected by a helmet. Crainialsyntosis is more serious. This is when the skull fusues too early before birth and it causes a lopsided or severly misshapen head that can even stunt brain growth. This requires an extensive surgery to correct where the scalp is peeled back and the skull is refixed along the plate lines of the skull. Other surgey on the face might be done as well. To top it off.......we all know Miller's reputation of extreme focus and visualization in practice and before games. He is a bit quirky, but many goalies are. Many will just write this off as "The hardest working goalie in hockey". Well....given what I have said so far in this thread, isn't it possible that Miller NEEDS to work extra hard to make up for the fact that he is at a disadvantage? Most goals in the NHL are scored from in close, so even if Miller has poor depth perception, it only comes into play at certain times. He is so positionally sound, that he can make up for any disadvantage through technique. He can't hide a problem however when he lets 60MPH floaters go by him with no huge screen on a semi-regular basis. I will leave you with these two pictures from my original link. Who is this? Drew Stafford? No...it's Ryan Miller's left side of his head. Now Ryan Miller's right side???? Eh.....might not want to let the kids go in the ice cream van with him. If you want a better view.....go to the original link and zoom in on picture #9 for yourself.
darksabre Posted February 8, 2010 Report Posted February 8, 2010 Well....given what I have said so far in this thread, isn't it possible that Miller NEEDS to work extra hard to make up for the fact that he is at a disadvantage? This idea right here is why I think there might be some legitimacy to what you're saying. We've heard it a lot this year, that Miller is the most positionally sound goalie in the NHL and it would certainly make sense that he has to be if he really does suffer some sort of depth perception problem. I also think it's an idea that is just so obscure that no one would have thought of it, especially back in his college days. If it's true, he's made it this far without it keeping him from being a stellar goaltender, and it could all be attributed to his work ethic, which he is noted for. It really is an interesting idea. And it's less far fetched than most of the trade deadline discussion around here recently. Maybe we should rename this smiley to :miller: :blink:
scottnc Posted February 8, 2010 Report Posted February 8, 2010 I seriously doubt a guy with depth perception problems could have made it to the NHL as a goaltender...
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