VANCOUVER — As a video tribute played and Canucks fans mostly applauded, J.T. Miller’s mind was racing.
His current team, the New York Rangers, were about to start a power play and he was running through scenarios while simultaneously trying to soak in the moment.
“We were worried about having a good rep,” he said, smiling.
Miller eventually collected himself and saluted the home crowd at Rogers Arena — a place he called home for five-and-a-half seasons before being traded to the Rangers last January. But after Tuesday’s game, which Miller described as “a much-needed” 2-0 win, he was in a better frame of mind to reflect.
“You don’t realize how lucky you are,” he said. “I’m just really happy that my kids got to be here today, and my wife. It means a ton to me. I just feel super lucky to have that support in a hockey crazy city. It was a really special chapter of our lives.”
Miller gets a tribute video and a pretty warm reception #NYR pic.twitter.com/pJzZYbahgJ
— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) October 29, 2025
Miller began the day by emphasizing the “task at hand,” which was snapping a three-game losing streak that left the Rangers (4-5-2) fending off frustration. A sputtering offense remains cause for concern, but the message from coach Mike Sullivan on down was about returning to the defensive structure that New York embraced in the opening weeks of the season.
“That’s the game that we put on the ice for most of this year,” Sullivan said. “When we play that way, we’re going to give ourselves a chance to win every night. And I thought the guys played really hard. I thought their intentions and our mindset was in the right place.”
That hadn’t been the case in the previous three losses, during which the Rangers allowed a combined 14 goals. Sullivan looked to Miller, his new captain, to help get the team back on task.
“His best leadership quality is through his example,” Sullivan said. “J.T. plays an honest game out there. He plays both sides of the puck. He competes extremely hard. He’s willing to do all the thankless jobs that add up to winning, like blocking shots and winning faceoffs and playing down low, stopping on pucks and wall play – a lot of those thankless jobs that I think coaches around the whole league value an awful lot, because we understand that that adds up to winning.”
It isn’t always the prettiest formula — there weren’t a ton of highlights to come out of Tuesday’s game, to be sure — but this iteration of Rangers must harp on those finer details if they’re going to have success. They mustered only one even-strength goal against the Canucks, which marked the seventh time in 11 games they’ve scored one or fewer. Mika Zibanejad finished a rush chance on a feed from Will Cuylle with 3:32 to play in the first period, then they had to play lockdown defense to make it hold up.
“It was a great team game,” said goalie Jonathan Quick, who tied Rangers legend Henrik Lundqvist for 17th all-time with his 64th career shutout. “From start to finish, we defended well. It’s a team that’s really good off the rush, and they’ve got some dangerous weapons. We checked hard and competed through the neutral zone, in front of our net. It went a long way.”
Quick came up big when he needed to, most notably during a late flurry in which he made six of his 23 saves in the final 7:43. It was a hold-on-for-dear-life ending that saw the Rangers mostly pinned in their own end, except for a few occasions when they could ice the puck to get a short breather. But Sam Carrick added a critical empty-netter with 1:33 remaining to seal the fourth win of the young season.
Prior to the third period, New York had limited Vancouver to only four high-danger scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick. That can be taken with a grain of salt since the Canucks were without their best player, Quinn Hughes, as well as second-line center and former Ranger, Filip Chytil, due to injuries. But it was still a generally smothering effort that looked a lot closer to the identity both Sullivan and Miller have been preaching.
“Just commitment, good mindset, good intention,” Miller said. “We didn’t force plays. … I thought we were committed from the drop of the puck.”
Miller’s value to the Rangers was on show Tuesday night. (Bob Frid / Imagn Images)
Whether the Rangers can sustain that defensive effort throughout a long season and win enough low-scoring games without wearing down or losing focus in the name of chasing goals will be a lingering question. Ideally, they can keep it up while also finding ways to spark a stagnant offense. But the dwindling skill and finishing talent on a roster that’s undergone major changes in the past year will make that difficult.
That’s why the Rangers are prioritizing a grind-it-out style as their foundation. It’s a new way of doing things around here, but it’s right in line with the type of hockey that Miller embraced during his time in Vancouver.
“He’s our leader here and a guy that wears his heart on his sleeve,” Carrick said. “It means a lot to our group. So, for sure, it’s a huge game for us — but most importantly for him.”
Power play still struggling
Winning these types of low-scoring affairs will be a necessity until the Rangers prove they can put up some goals. The power play, which has been slumping for the better part of a year, is a major part of the problem.
New York went 0-for-3 on Tuesday and is now just 4-for-28 on the season, dropping their success rate down to 14.3 percent. That’s even worse than last year’s 17.6 percent, which ranked 28th in the NHL.
The Rangers generated some decent looks on their first couple opportunities against the Canucks, but by the time their third PP came 4:02 into the second period, they were obviously pressing. They failed to even attempt a shot across the next two minutes, with an Artemi Panarin turnover resulting in two juicy shorthanded chances for Vancouver. Quick bailed them out by making saves on Drew O’Connor and Tyler Myers to maintain a 1-0, but the whole thing looked disjointed.
New York has now registered PP goals in only three of its first 11 games. It’s hard to see the offense opening up if that doesn’t improve soon.
“We had a lot of good looks tonight,” Sullivan maintained. “J.T. had one on the backdoor, for example, on the power play that he just missed on. (Panarin) had two of them on the power play. One, he had a short-side deflection that just missed. And then he had the one-timer in the bumper spot, in the pocket. Usually those guys get in those circumstances, more often than not, they’re going to score. So, I believe they’re going to score.”
Othmann, Robertson scratched
Sullivan continues to shuffle the lineup in search of winning combinations, with the top six rejiggered again heading into Tuesday’s contest. Panarin reunited with Zibanejad and Cuylle on the top line, while Miller skated on the second line with Alexis Lafrenière and Conor Sheary.
They produced encouraging results, with Zibanejad providing the winning goal and Miller’s line registering a 6-1 advantage in HD chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.
“I had a lot of nerves,” Miller admitted. “I tried to move my feet and stay focused, and I really liked the way our line played in the first two periods. I thought that we had a cycle game, had an honest game.”
There were also changes lower in the lineup, with a couple of young players getting yanked entirely.
It was somewhat surprising to see Matthew Robertson scratched following a career-long string of seven straight appearances. The 24-year-old had seemingly earned his spot with solid all-around play, including a 58.39 percent expected goals-for rate that ranked second among New York defensemen behind only Adam Fox entering Tuesday. Still, he was replaced Urho Vaakanainen, who had been scratched in each of the previous three games and registered a lowly 29.3 percent xGF against the Canucks.
Sullivan framed it as a reset following “a couple games” that he deemed weren’t up to Robertson’s prior level.
“We’ll work with him,” Sullivan added. “(Assistant coach David Quinn) sits with those guys almost daily and goes through video clips, trying to define expectations and the learning process. But like I said, he’s played some good hockey for us. We’re really excited about him as a defenseman and being part of the group.”
It was less surprising to see Sullivan pull Brennan Othmann from the lineup.
The rookie winger lasted only one game after being recalled to begin this western road trip, but his shaky showing in Sunday’s 5-1 loss to the Calgary Flames merited the change in favor of veteran Jonny Brodzinski. Othmann made some critical defensive errors, most notably abandoning Yegor Sharangovich in the slot to allow the Flames to score an easy goal in transition during the second period.
It’s moments like that which are making it difficult to earn the coaching staff’s trust and bringing his future with the organization into question.
“I think the most important element of it is just attention to detail, reliability, knowing your job, doing your job, play away from the puck,” Sullivan said. “That was where his focus, I think, needed to be. We’re looking for that element as an important aspect of him earning a roster spot. I thought in the game the other night, there were some good things that he did. There were also some moments where attention to detail could have helped us keep the puck out of the net.”
Rempe out ‘longer term’
Matt Rempe, who suffered a suspected hand injury during a fight with San Jose Sharks forward Ryan Reaves on Thursday, will be out “longer term,” according to Sullivan. While it’s not considered season-ending, it sounds like that means multiple weeks, if not months.
Vincent Trocheck is much closer to returning. The 32-year-old center has been out since Oct. 9 due to an upper-body injury and did not make the trip, but he skated on his own back in New York for the first time Monday and Tuesday, Sullivan said. He’ll be eligible to return from long-term injured reserve when the Rangers return for their next home game on Nov. 4 against the Carolina Hurricanes.