Miller vs. Lack

[biturbo19]

Wasn't Miller a trade deadline pickup who played well before that with his original team? Trade deadline pickups look poor all the time due to the transition/comfort, so why are we concerned about Miller's play with St. Louis in the playoffs?

Especially when it's a starting goaltender. I honestly can't think of a single one in recent memory that has worked out as well as expected. It's tough on weird creature of habit goaltenders to make that shift midstream. Learning to be confident in a new system with new defencemen to work with, a new coach, new environment while starting a bunch of games. As a backup, some guys get over it well enough...but as a starter? Nah. And in the case of St.Louis and Miller last year, a new goalie coach that he didn't seem to work well with too. Tough adjustment to make in ~20 games with the burden of cup expectations thrown in for good measure, and a healthy dose of injuries to the team in front of him.

It wasn't a good performance there...but it's a much different situation than coming in to camp with a new team and getting settled and adjusted before the season starts.

 

[Barney Gumble]

Wasn't Miller a trade deadline pickup who played well before that with his original team? Trade deadline pickups look poor all the time due to the transition/comfort, so why are we concerned about Miller's play with St. Louis in the playoffs?

Seriously, what was Miller to do? Score goals? THAT was the problem with the Blues in the post-season in recent history.

 

[WinterEmpire]

Seriously, what was Miller to do? Score goals? THAT was the problem with the Blues in the post-season in recent history.

Well...I think they were probably expecting a SV% over 0.903

 

[kurt]

I guess we could also look at his stats from the 10-11, 11-12, or 12-13 seasons, if consideration of Miller's most recent body of work is an unfair representation.

 

[luongo321]

So noureen will be giving birth in june'ish? I guess Lack will have to hold down the fort in the SCFinals.

 

[Hardyvan123]

Seriously, what was Miller to do? Score goals? THAT was the problem with the Blues in the post-season in recent history.

Sure the Blues could have used more scoring but it was the defending SC champs in the Hawks and sorry a .879 save % is just plain lousy today.

That being said miller to me is one of thsoe goalie types that plays better on a worse team and in Lack we have a pretty good 1-2 combo (it's probably our only real strength on the team as our group of forwards is bottom 1/3 (maybe closer to 30 than 20 as well) and our D group lacks depth if there any injuries and a PP QB and a big tough mean shutdown elite Dman which many other teams do have)

 

[Royal Canuck]

TLDR; Markstrom has a higher ceiling than Joachim Eriksson.

But we're also paying Markstrom $1.4M a season on a one-way contract to be our third string.

 

[Barney Gumble]

Sure the Blues could have used more scoring but it was the defending SC champs in the Hawks and sorry a .879 save % is just plain lousy today.

Sure his performance was nothing to be proud about; I only question the Blues GM at trading deadline deciding to "upgrade the goaltending" instead of improving their center ice depth.

Their signing of Stastny seems to have at least try and address that problem.

 

[aufheben]

Wasn't Miller a trade deadline pickup who played well before that with his original team? Trade deadline pickups look poor all the time due to the transition/comfort, so why are we concerned about Miller's play with St. Louis in the playoffs?

Miller spent most of the season playing out of his mind for possibly the worst team I've ever seen, then HF soured on him when he didn't succeed on a team that has historically defined choking.

That Buffalo team would have went 0-82 without him.

 

[thepoeticgoblin]

But we're also paying Markstrom $1.4M a season on a one-way contract to be our third string.

Truth. If I was Benning I'd take the risk of losing Marky unless Rollie says different. Would benefit Jacob's development more to play regularly with Utica than being in the press box. Rollie has started a remodeling process with him though so any time he gets with Rollie is a plus for a Markström fan.

 

[TheWanderer]

god buffalo was horrible last year lol

 

[Barney Gumble]

Truth. If I was Benning I'd take the risk of losing Marky unless Rollie says different. Would benefit Jacob's development more to play regularly with Utica than being in the press box. Rollie has started a remodeling process with him though so any time he gets with Rollie is a plus for a Markström fan.

We already have two goalie prospects in Utica. Don't see the room for him their either.

 

[biturbo19]

We already have two goalie prospects in Utica. Don't see the room for him their either.

If it were to end up pushing Cannata to the ECHL, or seemingly more likely, Eriksson back to Sweden...it still really wouldn't be that huge of a loss really. If Markstrom is going to improve the things he needs to work on most, it's going to be by playing a ton of games, and that's only going to happen in the AHL.

And if you manage to sneak Markstrom through waivers to Utica, you don't get rid of him just to keep Eriksson/Cannata.

 

[mossey3535]

We'll see with the preseason games, but saying that we might start with 3 goalies is pretty interesting. It may be a small slight on Miller, but more certainly if I'm Lack I would be pouring on the effort right now.

 

[me2]

We'll see with the preseason games, but saying that we might start with 3 goalies is pretty interesting. It may be a small slight on Miller, but more certainly if I'm Lack I would be pouring on the effort right now.

Either it is

a) ridiculous bluff
b) stupid if real
c) hail Mary hoping for some team to get injuries and desperate

Waive one or trade one.

 

[Love]

We'll see with the preseason games, but saying that we might start with 3 goalies is pretty interesting. It may be a small slight on Miller, but more certainly if I'm Lack I would be pouring on the effort right now.

To me it simply shows that they think Markstrom will be claimed if waived, and they dont want to do that because they still see value in him.

 

[nekyvGkOPaiWICTscLl6]

Miller spent most of the season playing out of his mind for possibly the worst team I've ever seen, then HF soured on him when he didn't succeed on a team that has historically defined choking.

That Buffalo team would have went 0-82 without him.

Let's not forget that Jhonas Enroth played pretty damn well... outplaying Miller for long stretches...

 

[me2]

We'll see with the preseason games, but saying that we might start with 3 goalies is pretty interesting. It may be a small slight on Miller, but more certainly if I'm Lack I would be pouring on the effort right now.

What's the worst that will happen to Lack? He's got a 1-way deal, and he'd get snapped up on waivers anyway.

 

[Caustic]

The thing to remember here is that everyone involved knows what's up. Lack knows he is not considered to be good enough to be our #1 right now, and he's clearly ok with that.

Miller knows that Lack shows promise, and that he may become expendable - hence why he has a limited trade clause and only a 3 year contract.

And both goalies will push each other to be better. Lack is good enough to potentially have better stats than Miller, so neither goalie should end up taking any nights off. (Theoretically)

While Miller would not necessarily have been my choice if I was in Benning's position, I think that overall our goaltending should at least be average to above average. Now it will be up to the rest of the team not to repeat last year's performance. Or lack thereof.