The Chase: Drew Miller

We still love you, Drew…even if we sometimes wish you were Ryan.

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If you follow this blog, you know I’m constantly trying to figure out exactly how many points it will take to get the Wings into the playoffs and off of the stress train. This year, I’ve been putting all of my eggs in the James Mirtle basket. Mirtle puts together his best guesses of how many points it will take to get in the playoffs each and every year, and he’s been locked on 94 points in the West for some time now. Yesterday, Mirtle dropped the new knowledge on us (full article here):

The playoff push is updated with 94 pts as mark in West and 87 in East. Toronto, Columbus eliminated.

It’s been stuck at 94 for a few weeks now, and Mirtle thinks it will stay parked there unless the Calgary Flames decide to get…hot. Naturally, the Wings stand in between the Flames and the proverbial hot-streak tonight, and vice-versa, as both teams are winners of two in a row. It’s as big of a regular season game as we have seen for some time in Detroit.

So what better time than now to begin a bit of a “creative” countdown for the Wings. With a hat tip to Detroit4Lyfe, who coined this idea during the Tigers’ ALMOST run to the playoffs last year (we’re hoping to reverse the trend for you, Bob), we’ll be counting down the points needed to get to Mirtle’s Magic Number before each of the 17 remaining regular season games. We’ll find inspiration in Red Wings past and present as we move along the road to the Cup, and who better than the current Number 20, Drew Miller, to kick off the charge for the last 20 points.

With secondary scoring becoming increasingly important, it’s hard not to start taking a longer look at Miller. Yes, I still think he’s the leading candidate for Ken Holland’s “sleeper acquisition of the year”, but that’s based more on long term belief that he can become a great third-liner over the long term than it is on what he’s done this season. Sure, he’s put up a career high in points for a single season, but he’s been deathly quiet as of late, which coincidentally happens to be when the Wings need offensive output the most. Arguably, his biggest contribution has been his penalty killing prowess, but it sure would be nice to see some more scoring out of the guy who is 59th in the NHL in game winning goals. Yes, 59th. Despite his penchant for only scoring tallies that win games, Miller has been blanked in the goal column since he scored the (you guessed it) game winner against Nashville all the way back on January 29th. Since then, Miller has gone minus-3 with only 2 assists to his name.

Look, I swallowed my MSU hating pride and got on board the Silver Fox Express, but it’s time for Drew to step up and make something happen, if not for me, then for his future here in Detroit. I still fully support bringing him back for some more time in the Winged Wheel, but it sure wouldn’t hurt his case to notch a couple more points here and there over the rest of the regular season.

So, Drew Miller, the spotlight is on you today. In one of the biggest regular season tilts in the last decade in Detroit, we look to your number 20 to help the team break free of the 20 points needed to get to 94. If ever there was a better time for you to tally yet another game winning goal, I can’t think of one. So, how about it Drew?

Tags: Drew Miller, Playoff Push