Revisiting Ryan Miller's Eyes

[Ghost of Dwight Drane]

I seriously doubt a guy with depth perception problems could have made it to the NHL as a goaltender...

 

Jim Abbott - Major League Pitcher, USA Olympian, One Hand

Kenny Walker - NFL Lineman, All-American at Nebraska - Deaf

Tom Dempsy - NFL Kicker, record holder, One proper foot

[ko12010]

wheres scully and mulder?

 

 

Lol love The X Files btw. When I started reading this thread I though the OP actually had a contact that knew Miller's family, I didn't know he was just guessing about this disorder.

[SwampD]

Wow. The lengths that some fans will go to justify Lindy Ruff around here are mind blowing. It couldn't just be that in Lindy's system the points are left wide open so there is an inordinately higher amount of those type of shots taken, in conjunction with a D corps that doesn't clear the front of the net as to not give him a clear view (if any) of said shots. Nope. It's a childhood deformity.

[ko12010]

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.

 

 

 

If any of you follow golf Michael Cambell won the 2005 U.S. Open I think, but he worked with a guy who had him do eye exercises, and he actually was doing them during the round in outhouses. This was linked to him having better depth perception and stuff like that.

 

How great would it be if Miller actually had an issue like this that he could fix it somehow? Maybe he doesn't even know, although I'd assume he would. How great would he be if he could fix something like that.

[Ghost of Dwight Drane]

Lol love The X Files btw. When I started reading this thread I though the OP actually had a contact that knew Miller's family, I didn't know he was just guessing about this disorder.

 

If I knew him....I would never bring this up. I wouldn't expect anyone to bring this up if it is true.....it would be damaging. Like I said, Ryan hit his payday, so it's not as taboo bringing it out there now. I am sure the Sabres would crap a brick if anything went public....but I would not be too sure they would even know about it given the past incompetence of their training staff.

 

Could it be BS......sure. But someone visiting the information in an objective fashion would probably want to dig a bit deeper. Don't expect any local media to do so, since they are happy as pigs in crap with their perks.

[Mbossy]

This oughta do it:

 

[JJFIVEOH]

Sorry if somebody already covered this, but did anybody stop to think that maybe this is what makes him so good up close? Hmmmm.......

[Stoner]

Might be some validity to it. Who knows. I believe the Sporting News statistic you cite but would love to see a link to it.

 

But I wonder how he easily handles the occasional shoot-in from center ice or even the longer shot from the opponent's defensive end. This would show up on those shots too. I don't ever recall Miller having a problem on one of those shots.

 

But it's interesting to note that when people with this visual problem get tired, the problem gets a lot worse.

 

My creepiness factor: 9.1.

[darksabre]

Might be some validity to it. Who knows. I believe the Sporting News statistic you cite but would love to see a link to it.

 

But I wonder how he easily handles the occasional shoot-in from center ice or even the longer shot from the opponent's defensive end. This would show up on those shots too. I don't ever recall Miller having a problem on one of those shots.

 

But it's interesting to note that when people with this visual problem get tired, the problem gets a lot worse.

 

My creepiness factor: 9.1.

 

haha, but you are right then. If this problem gets worse with fatigue, then you may be on the ball with your criticism of Lindy Ruff and his mismanagement of goaltenders.

 

It also begs the question that, if Miller does suffer from something like this, does Ruff know? Does Miller tell him he's fine when he isn't?

 

This hypothetical really brings a lot of questions to the surface.

[Ghost of Dwight Drane]

Might be some validity to it. Who knows. I believe the Sporting News statistic you cite but would love to see a link to it.

 

But I wonder how he easily handles the occasional shoot-in from center ice or even the longer shot from the opponent's defensive end. This would show up on those shots too. I don't ever recall Miller having a problem on one of those shots.

 

But it's interesting to note that when people with this visual problem get tired, the problem gets a lot worse.

 

My creepiness factor: 9.1.

 

Here is the page from The Hockey News....April 1, 2008. I misspoke with Sporting News.

 

This is a sample, so zoom in on the lower right of page 45 "where they were scored"

 

You are correct in that he is fine with bombs. He is attrocious from 20-35'. I am also surprised to see him so poor with right in front, but then again this is from '08.

 

 

I have to go back and look at the stereovision issue. If I remember correctly it is more of an issue with a moving target. That would explain why the "Mr Softee" goals seemingly come off of a transition dump in / floating shot as opposed to when guys are positioned at the point on a set play like a PP and not on the move.

 

Where they were scored

[RayFinkle]

Miller is the 8th Cylon.