Penguins Notebook: Sabres' Miller enjoying plenty of playing time
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Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller trips up Penguins forward Sidney Crosby in the third period.
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Buffalo's Ryan Miller doesn't lead NHL goaltenders in games-played this season -- that would be New Jersey's Martin Brodeur -- but he's firmly entrenched in a group that plays the vast majority of his team's games.
"I like to play, and I like to feel like there's a rhythm out there," Miller said Monday before the Sabres played the Penguins at Mellon Arena, his 49th appearance in his team's 54th game.
"If you have a bad game or there's something that's off, you can get right back on the horse and try again. There's not a lot of time to sit around and think."
He would seem to be someone who puts his minutes where his mouth is. Miller entered the game ranked first in the league with a .935 save percentage and second with a 2.03 goals-against average.
There is give, though, in other areas.
"We've really changed a lot of things on how we practice and how we approach his days off, trying to give him more time," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. "There are some goalies now that are carrying pretty heavy workloads. Ryan's workload has been heavy, but at the same time we've adjusted practices and adjusted what he's done between games."
Miller, 29, won't set any personal records for appearances this season. He played in 76 games in 2007-08. But he will add to his winter schedule as the projected starter for the United States in the Olympics.
He understands to carry anything close to that kind of workload, he has to manage his time between games.
"When I was younger, I probably spent too much time on the ice," he said. "In the American [Hockey] League they used to have to tell me to get off [the ice] because it was in my head that I had to go through a complete practice every time I was out there."
Now he has just got it in his head that he needs to play nearly every game.
Forward Mark Letestu was the latest player to arrive hurriedly on the EZ-Pass express. He got called up Saturday evening from Wilkes-Barre and jumped into the Penguins' lineup Sunday against Detroit.
"I went to the rink [Saturday] ready to play Manitoba, and Todd [Reirden, the Wilkes-Barre coach] told me to go home and the car would be there at 5:15," Letestu said. "It's fun, but at the same time it's kind of a guessing game."
First Published February 2, 2010 12:00 am
