J.T. Miller Ices New York Rangers' 5-3 Win Over The Canucks
Saturday's busy 14-game NHL slate started off with a bang as the New York Rangers snapped a three-game losing skid with a 5-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks at Madison Square Garden.
Both teams came in just below the playoff cut-line, and the matchup carried extra weight because it was J.T. Miller's first game against his old team since he was traded back to the club that drafted him on Jan. 31.
After logging seven goals and 11 assists for 18 points in 20 games with the Rangers, Miller was all over the action on Saturday. The Rangers were badly outplayed during the first two periods, outshot 24-6. But after the Canucks opened the scoring on a first-period goal by Dakota Joshua, Miller helped his team draw even midway through the second, on the ice when Adam Fox tipped a point shot by Braden Schneider past Kevin Lankinen.
Then, early in the third, he dug out the puck from the end boards and fed Jonny Brodzinski, putting the home side ahead for the first time in the game and sparking a frenetic third period that saw the Blueshirts outscore the Canucks 4-2. After Brodzinski broke a 3-3 tie with less than five minutes remaining, the dagger came off Miller's stick, 176 feet into the empty net, with 17 seconds left on the clock.
Who else but JT Miller to ice the game against the Canucks! pic.twitter.com/DUDqs3DHVb
— Spittin' Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) March 22, 2025
Miller earned third-star honors for the day, and Brodzinski's two goals gave him the first-star award. But the Rangers wouldn't have been in a position to mount their comeback without Igor Shesterkin. He held steady while under siege through the first 40 minutes, stopping 1.96 goals saved above expected in all situations according to Natural Stat Trick as Vancouver outshot New York 24-6.
The final shots were 39-12 for the Canucks, Vancouver's highest shot total of the year. By himself, Quinn Hughes challenged the output of the entire Rangers team, with nine shots on goal to go along with four misses and two blocks. He finished with one assist, breaking the ankles of Matt Rempe before setting up Joshua's opening goal.
Quinn Hughes putting Matt Rempe in the spin cycle will never get old 😆🎥: Sportsnet | NHL#Canucks #NYR pic.twitter.com/kdH3BXqE5S
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) March 22, 2025
The Canucks didn't just lose the game on Saturday. They also lost two of their hottest offensive players — both Swedes, no less, on the first-ever 'Hockey Day in Sweden.'
Elias Pettersson appeared to suffer an injury on a second-period face-off play against Vincent Trocheck.
Bad news for the Canucks as Elias Pettersson has gone to the dressing room after an awkward play in the faceoff circle. 🎥: Sportsnet | NHL#Canucks #NYR pic.twitter.com/kRwrsXW9Pi
— CanucksArmy (@CanucksArmy) March 22, 2025
He returned for two short shifts but was ruled out for the third period. Hoglander's last shift came late in the second.
Both players had been piling up the points of late. Pettersson had three goals and six assists in his last six games, and Hoglander had six points in his last five games.
Canucks coach Rick Tocchet did not have an update on either player after the game but mentioned that a center may need to be recalled from AHL Abbotsford — which doesn't bode well for Pettersson.
After the Canucks opened their six-game road trip on Thursday with an overtime loss to one of the teams they're battling for a playoff spot, the St. Louis Blues, they'll continue on the road for another eight days — visiting New Jersey, Long Island and Columbus before finishing off in Winnipeg.
Miller wasn't the only traded player to chip in offensively on Saturday.
The Canucks also dealt defenseman Carson Soucy to the Rangers just before the trade deadline. He played 16:22 and finished at plus-one, with the second assist on Brodzinski's game winner.
On the Vancouver side, former Ranger Victor Mancini picked up the second assist on Drew O'Connor's third-period goal, which tied the score 2-2. O'Connor was also an indirect acquisition from the Miller trade, acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for the first-round draft pick that Vancouver received from New York.
Defenseman Marcus Pettersson also came to Vancouver as part of that deal. He had a quiet game, finishing at minus-1 in 20:10 of ice time.
Filip Chytil, another former Ranger, did not play on Saturday. After putting up six points in his first 15 games with Vancouver, the 25-year-old missed his fourth game after suffering a concussion from a hit by Jason Dickinson of the Chicago Blackhawks one week ago.
Get the latest news and trending stories by following The Hockey News on Google News and by subscribing to The Hockey News newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
30 minutes ago
- New York Times
What I'm hearing about the Rangers: Latest on Will Cuylle talks, potential K'Andre Miller trade, more
The New York Rangers were busy making offseason moves even before the Stanley Cup Final ended. Team president and general manager Chris Drury traded away veteran Chris Kreider last week, and he's started making headway on his restricted free agents, signing Matt Rempe, Juuso Pärssinen and Matthew Robertson in recent days. New York will likely continue to be active this summer as it attempts to improve on a disappointing 2024-25 season. Advertisement What comes next as we head in draft week and July 1 free agency? Here are some tidbits after talking to sources around the league. • The Rangers and restricted free agent Will Cuylle's camp have been in talks. Signing him has to be one of New York's biggest priorities this summer. He's 23 and is coming off a 45-point season, all while bringing a level of physicality and edge that matches what Drury wants his team to have. AFP Analytics projects a three-year deal for Cuylle with an average annual value of $3.435 million. Evolving-Hockey has a similar projection: three years, $3.195 million. If New York were to try to extend Cuylle on a longer-term deal, the AAV would have to go up. The chances of Cuylle getting an offer sheet presumably went down after the Kreider trade. Part of New York's reason for moving the veteran winger was to create cap flexibility in case another team presented one of its restricted free agents with a compelling offer sheet. When the St. Louis Blues signed Edmonton Oilers RFAs Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway last summer, Edmonton was in a tight salary cap situation that made it hard for them to match. The Oilers let both walk in exchange for the draft compensation that comes with losing a restricted free agent in certain salary ranges. Teams generally only use offer sheets when they believe there's a legitimate chance of getting a player. As of now, the Rangers' added cap space can act as a safeguard. To continue having that protection, they'll need to either get a Cuylle extension done or set aside enough cap space through free agency to make sure they can match a potential offer sheet. That way a team won't be able to catch them in a vulnerable spot as the Blues did with Edmonton. • New York still has to decide what to do with its first-round pick in next week's draft. The Rangers owe either this year's first-rounder (No. 12) or their 2026 first to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins got the pick from the Vancouver Canucks, who received it from the Rangers in the J.T. Miller trade. Advertisement There's been lots of leaguewide discussion about offer sheets in the wake of the Blues' success with Broberg and Holloway. My colleagues Michael Russo and Chris Johnston wrote a good story about it in April. If the Rangers decide to use this year's pick, you can write off any possibility of the team getting involved in the offer sheet game. To sign a player to an offer sheet in the $4.68 million to $7.02 million range this summer, a team must have its own 2026 first- and third-round picks, which would go to the RFA's former team if it doesn't match the contract. Should New York draft at No. 12 next week, it won't have the required first to take a big swing. The Rangers also don't have their 2026 second-round pick, eliminating the possibility of them trying to sign someone in the AAV bracket below. The Rangers would keep the offer sheet possibility open if they forfeit their 2025 first, but they also might not have the cap space needed to sign someone in that salary range, especially if they don't move out any other contracts. There's a reason offer sheets aren't common: They're hard to pull off. The deadline to make the decision on the draft pick is 48 hours before the draft: Wednesday at 7 p.m. Eastern. • The Rangers have been exploring the trade market for K'Andre Miller, as they were during the regular season, per league sources. Miller, one of the top names on Chris Johnston's offseason trade board, is due a raise in restricted free agency from the two-year, $3.872 million bridge deal he signed before the 2023-24 season. Still only 25, he's a big (6-foot-5), strong-skating defenseman who at his best can contribute offense. He had only 27 points in 74 games this past season but has had as many as 43 in a season (2022-23). He has also shown he can play well over 20 minutes a night, averaging 21:27 in his career. Advertisement Trading Miller would be a risk given his age and the potential he's shown at the NHL level. Should the Rangers move him, they would get a package of assets in return and gain some cap flexibility since they'd no longer need to pay for Miller's raise. But they'd also need to replace a key defenseman on their roster, potentially through free agency. Vladislav Gavrikov, Ivan Provorov and Aaron Ekblad are the top defensemen on the unrestricted-free-agent market, per Johnston's UFA Big Board. All are at least three years older than Miller and will likely command long-term, high-cap-hit deals. That would eat into New York's precious cap space. • Mika Zibanejad's wife, Irma, told a Swedish newspaper that coach Mike Sullivan visited their home in Sweden. Zibanejad was consistent throughout the year in his stance that he wanted to be on the Rangers. He has full control over his situation with a no-movement clause that is essentially buyout-proof because of the signing bonus structure. All the tea leaves point to him being back, and it makes sense to have him back on J.T. Miller's wing, where he had some success last season. • The Rangers signed restricted free agent Matthew Robertson to a two-year extension (two-way on the first year, one-way league minimum on the second, per a league source). Robertson, a second-round pick from 2019, made his NHL debut at the end of the 2024-25 season, playing the final two games of the Rangers' season after the team was eliminated from playoff contention. (Top photo of Will Cuylle and K'Andre Miller: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
San Francisco Chronicle
35 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Coastal Carolina all in on keeping baseball program a national power in new era of college sports
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Though many athletic programs outside the power four conferences are expected to drop off competitively when scholarship limits are removed and revenue sharing begins July 1, College World Series finalist Coastal Carolina is committed to continue playing with the big boys in baseball. Rosters will be capped at 34 in Division I baseball going forward, and first-year athletic director Chance Miller told The Associated Press all 34 at Coastal Carolina would receive full scholarships and be in line for direct rev-share payments. Miller said he also believes the Chanticleers' opportunities for name, image and likeness earnings will compare favorably with those for power conference baseball teams within two years. Baseball is Coastal Carolina's flagship sport. The Chanticleers have played in 21 NCAA Tournaments since 1991, won the 2016 CWS for their first national championship in any sport, and they'll take a 26-game win streak into the best-of-three finals against LSU starting Saturday night. Coach Kevin Schnall said the athletic administration's support 'at the highest level' is a big reason the Chanticleers are back in Omaha. 'What I mean by that is they enabled us to hire an elite coaching staff that would rival any coaching staff in the entire country,' Schnall said. 'They give us the resources to put our players in the best position to become the best players that they can be. And it's an absolute team effort.' Miller said the budget has been restructured to allocate more money for scholarships without asking for additional institutional support. He said a significant portion of the revenue sharing for 2025-26 comes from donors, including a 'transformational gift' from one who wished to remain anonymous. A fundraising dinner in Omaha last week brought in $1 million, he said. Coastal Carolina's baseball players are earning about $200,000 combined in third-party NIL deals this year; retired coach Gary Gilmore noted, 'LSU has that much in just one guy.' Miller said NIL numbers for the next year will be inflated at a lot of power four schools. That's because many NIL deals were paid up front rather than having payments spread out. Athletes and their agents wanted to avoid having to get those valued at $600-plus vetted by the NIL clearinghouse, as required after June 6 when the House settlement was approved. 'We talked to one of the collectives from a power four school I know very well, and right now they're spending $2.5 million on the (baseball) team and next year they're going to spend $3 million because they frontloaded a lot of NIL money from their collective," Miller said. "The year after that, they're going to drop down to $500,000. So that's a drastic drop.' Miller's charge, like his predecessor's, is to keep Coastal Carolina in the top tier of college baseball. 'The mentality of our program — all the way back to Coach Gilmore's early days in the late 90s — was geared to reach Omaha," said Matt Hogue, who retired as athletic director last year to become director of Coastal Carolina's Center for Sports Broadcasting. 'The way we financially invested, how we scheduled, infrastructure. We always viewed the CWS as the expectation, not a novelty.' LSU coach Jay Johnson said if there's one non-power conference baseball program able to keep competing for trips to Omaha in the new era of college athletics, it's Coastal Carolina. 'Gonzaga basketball, Boise State football. The ones sustainable for decades, that's who they are,' he said. 'This is no surprise to me we're playing them. As long as coach Schnall's there, they're not going anywhere for a long time.'
Hamilton Spectator
an hour ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Coastal Carolina all in on keeping baseball program a national power in new era of college sports
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Though many athletic programs outside the power four conferences are expected to drop off competitively when scholarship limits are removed and revenue sharing begins July 1, College World Series finalist Coastal Carolina is committed to continue playing with the big boys in baseball. Rosters will be capped at 34 in Division I baseball going forward, and first-year athletic director Chance Miller told The Associated Press all 34 at Coastal Carolina would receive full scholarships and be in line for direct rev-share payments. Miller said he also believes the Chanticleers' opportunities for name, image and likeness earnings will compare favorably with those for power conference baseball teams within two years. Baseball is Coastal Carolina's flagship sport. The Chanticleers have played in 21 NCAA Tournaments since 1991, won the 2016 CWS for their first national championship in any sport, and they'll take a 26-game win streak into the best-of-three finals against LSU starting Saturday night. Coach Kevin Schnall said the athletic administration's support 'at the highest level' is a big reason the Chanticleers are back in Omaha. 'What I mean by that is they enabled us to hire an elite coaching staff that would rival any coaching staff in the entire country,' Schnall said. 'They give us the resources to put our players in the best position to become the best players that they can be. And it's an absolute team effort.' Miller said the budget has been restructured to allocate more money for scholarships without asking for additional institutional support. He said a significant portion of the revenue sharing for 2025-26 comes from donors, including a 'transformational gift' from one who wished to remain anonymous. A fundraising dinner in Omaha last week brought in $1 million, he said. Coastal Carolina's baseball players are earning about $200,000 combined in third-party NIL deals this year; retired coach Gary Gilmore noted, 'LSU has that much in just one guy.' Miller said NIL numbers for the next year will be inflated at a lot of power four schools. That's because many NIL deals were paid up front rather than having payments spread out. Athletes and their agents wanted to avoid having to get those valued at $600-plus vetted by the NIL clearinghouse, as required after June 6 when the House settlement was approved. 'We talked to one of the collectives from a power four school I know very well, and right now they're spending $2.5 million on the (baseball) team and next year they're going to spend $3 million because they frontloaded a lot of NIL money from their collective,' Miller said. 'The year after that, they're going to drop down to $500,000. So that's a drastic drop.' Miller's charge, like his predecessor's, is to keep Coastal Carolina in the top tier of college baseball. 'The mentality of our program — all the way back to Coach Gilmore's early days in the late 90s — was geared to reach Omaha,' said Matt Hogue, who retired as athletic director last year to become director of Coastal Carolina's Center for Sports Broadcasting. 'The way we financially invested, how we scheduled, infrastructure. We always viewed the CWS as the expectation, not a novelty.' LSU coach Jay Johnson said if there's one non-power conference baseball program able to keep competing for trips to Omaha in the new era of college athletics, it's Coastal Carolina. 'Gonzaga basketball, Boise State football. The ones sustainable for decades, that's who they are,' he said. 'This is no surprise to me we're playing them. As long as coach Schnall's there, they're not going anywhere for a long time.' ___ AP college sports:
