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 The problem for the Blues was Miller wore a Vancouver jersey on
Thursday night.
In his first game against his former team after signing a three-year
contract as a free agent during the summer, Miller stopped 31 of 32
shots to lead the Canucks to a 4-1 victory.
"It could have been an emotional game," Miller said. "I wanted to
get myself ready and I was looking forward to the challenge. We
skated well and it felt good."
Miller, who played 19 regular-season games for the Blues before the
team was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the
Blackhawks, did not have a chance to play against the Sabres last
year.
"It's an intense game, but I formed bonds with those guys and liked
them as people," Miller said. "It's going to be fun to continue to
compete against them."
Miller, who was pulled from his last start Tuesday night in Dallas
in the second period after allowing five goals on 13 shots, made the
save of the game early in the third period with the score tied at 1.
He got in front of a shot by center Jori Lehtera, and the Canucks
then took the puck the other way on an odd-man rush, with center
Nick Bonino firing a shot past St. Louis goalie Jake Allen to put
Vancouver ahead.
The Canucks went on to add a power-play goal and an empty-net goal
in the period to make the rest of Miller's night easier.
"The save he made in the third was the game," Vancouver coach Willie
Desjardins said. "If they score there, it's 2-1 them. He made the
big save, we went down and scored and that changed the game."
Desjardins was happy that Miller was able to bounce back from his
rough game just 48 hours earlier.
"A couple of minutes after I took him out of the game, I went down
the bench and told him he would be starting in St. Louis,"
Desjardins said. "He said, 'That's the game I want.'"
The only goal Miller allowed came on a St. Louis power play in the
second period when the Canucks were assessed a bench minor for
having too many men on the ice. Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk fired a
wrist shot past Miller.
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"He played well," Shattenkirk said of Miller. "He obviously lets in
one goal and then we threw some shots at him and he was able to
control a lot of his rebounds or kick them away from danger. Listen,
things didn't work out here, but he's still Ryan Miller. We don't
forget that.
"He's still a great goalie and one of the great goalies in this
league, so he's a hard guy to beat and playing the way we did
tonight. We had some good chances; we just have to put some more by
him."
St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock said the Blues, who have lost three of
their last four games, were playing with a recipe for disaster,
especially allowing the odd-man rushes like the one that allowed the
Canucks to score the winning goal.
"To give up a two-on-one from that distance, that's not us,"
Hitchcock said. "We don't give up breakaways. ... We've given up
more odd-man rushes in six games than we did in two months last year
and you can't win like that.
"This is a wake up call. The alarm bell is going off. You can't have
half the group buying in and the other half not. This is a real good
eye-opener for us."
NOTES: Blues C Paul Stastny missed his second consecutive game with
a shoulder injury. Coach Ken Hitchcock has described Stastny's
status as week to week. ... Blues C Jori Lehtera returned to the
lineup after missing the previous game with the flu. The bug that
was still affecting the team did not force St. Louis to scratch
anybody for the game against the Canucks. ... Vancouver D Alex Edler
played in his 500th career game. ... The Canucks will conclude a
three-game road trip Friday in Colorado, the second of eight
back-to-back road games on this year's schedule. The Blues play host
to the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.
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