Miller's Slump

[hopeleslyobvious]

What does everyone think about this. ..From December until right before the Olympic break Miller was on fire, but I think his lack of confidence, and slump can be traced right back to that Carolina game before the break. Miller was obviously tired that day (2 starts in less than 24 hours), and it showed. Up until that point he was amazing on shootouts...he wasn't that day. We all know Miller can be his own worst enemy. He had the entire Olympic break to think about the Carolina game. After coming back from the break, he has not been himself. Make sense to anyone else?

[Stoner]

That sounds plausible.

 

You can also have some fun psychoanalyzing the guy by remembering that 1.) the motivation to prove the U.S. Olympic team wrong obviously went away after the break and 2.) the Sabres didn't trade Biron at the deadline, perhaps giving Miller the impression the organization is not entirely sold on him.

 

Some troubling stats on Miller: in the last 15 games, he has allowed three or more goals 12 times. In the 15 games before that, he allowed that many just four times.

 

I know that the conventional wisdom is that the Sabres' defense shares a big part of the responsibility for the ballooning GAA. But they're allowing only a couple more shots per game during this most recent stretch of 15 games for Miller vs. the 15 previous. Shots don't explain the slide. Of course shots on goal can be deceiving. Someone on this board should start counting scoring chances. I know the league doesn't keep it as an official stat. The teams do, but it isn't publicized.

[Spandrel]

To me, it seemed to start after Noronen was traded. Granted we won some of the first few games after the trade, but we were giving up a lot of goals per game.

 

Something got into this team's head in that first period of the game against Ottawa on the 18th when they gave up two quick goals, and the team hasn't looked the same.