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NHL NHL Regular Season The 32-year-old veteran has been on a noticeable upswing of late, with nine points in his last nine games for the Rangers. Bob Frid / Imagn Images TARRYTOWN, N. Y. — J. T. Miller’s first season as New York Rangers captain has been disrupted by injuries and, for a while, mired by substandard production. “I didn’t think I was playing poorly in the middle chunk of the season, ” the veteran forward explained to The Athletic following Tuesday’s practice at the MSG Training Center. But he was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks last year to jolt a Rangers’ lineup that desperately needed a game-changer — and he knows he wasn’t living up to his end of the bargain. Advertisement “It’s basically how I evaluate myself: Are you driving the play or not? Or are you just out there? ” Miller said. “I was just kind of wasting energy, it felt like. I couldn’t get into rhythm and timing. ” It amplified questions about the wisdom of committing to a volatile 32-year-old who’s been traded three times — including once previously from New York — but Miller has been on a noticeable upswing of late. After registering only nine points through his first 20 games, he’s matched that total with a point-per-game pace in his last nine contests. Still, Miller pushed back on the notion that his improvement started around that marker, saying, “I don’t even think it’s the last (nine games). I might have had points in those games, but I wasn’t driving play. ” In his mind, the turnaround began just last week. His coach, Mike Sullivan, fully concurred. “J. T. ’s last few games are amongst his best that he’s had all year long, ” Sullivan said. “There were a few instances where you’re watching from the bench, and the feeling I get is that, ‘He’s in a beast mode. ’ When he’s possessing the puck in the offensive zone, using his size and his physical stature to protect pucks and roll off the pressure and look for that next play, he’s hard to handle. ” Miller pointed to a few factors, starting with his deployment. For nearly two full months, New York’s top-six forwards were in flux. Underperforming veterans and suspect overall depth made it a slog to generate offense, which, along with a 14-game injury absence for Vincent Trocheck, forced Sullivan to constantly juggle his lines. Recently, though, he may have landed on combinations that work. Miller has joined forces with Trocheck and Conor Sheary, with that trio primarily functioning as the Rangers’ matchup line. They spent nearly every shift in Saturday’s 3-2 overtime loss to the NHL-leading Colorado Avalanche going head-to-head with Hart Trophy front-runner Nathan Mac Kinnon and held their own, with the lines battling to a 1-1 push. Advertisement It’s a challenge that Miller relishes — “How do you not get up for that? ” he asked, smiling — and has accepted as often, if not more, than any other forward in the league. His 2. 65 quality-of-competition rating, a stat from Hockey Stat Cards that measures the difficulty of every shift based on opponent, grades out as the NHL’s toughest draw. “You work your whole life and your young career to get to a point where you can go out and try to shut down the best players in the world, ” he said. “We take a lot of pride in that, and it’s not going to go great all the time. It’s really hard to keep guys off the (score) sheet, but I feel like we at least understand that if we can limit the easy chances for the other team, we can keep the juice down for them and play the game we want to play. ” Consequently, New York’s top line of Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafrenière has been freed up to hunt for offense against lesser competition. It’s created two lines that have differing strengths and seem to complement each other well. “Their line is a puck-possession-through-the-neutral-zone game, and they create a lot of plays, ” Miller said. “Our line does it the other way. It’s in our DNA just to kind of play a little straighter and to come up with pucks and be close on the forecheck. We get our offense by wearing teams down in the D-zone and playing a north-south type thing, and that’s OK. We should be able to score different ways. ” Miller and Zibanejad lobbied to play together during the summer and preseason, and while the underlying numbers were fine — 52. 68 percent expected goals-for rate, according to Natural Stat Trick — the results left much to be desired. The Rangers have averaged only 2. 02 goals for per 60 minutes with that duo together at five-on-five. Many of those minutes came earlier in the season, but they’ve each been better apart lately. Miller’s scoring more, as is Zibanejad, who will ride a seven-game point streak — his longest since December 2023 — into Wednesday night’s game in Chicago against the Blackhawks. Most notably, the Rangers have been winning, with a 5-1-2 record since Thanksgiving week. Advertisement “It’s working better that way, ” Miller acknowledged. “Ever since he’s gotten away from me, he’s driving offense. And since I got away from him, we’re driving offense, and our team’s having more success. So let’s just do what we’re doing, you know? ” Budding chemistry and a like-minded approach with Trocheck and Sheary has helped, with Miller noting, “We’re a veteran line, and we understand exactly what we’re trying to do. ” Sullivan pointed to their collective “tight-area skills, ” adding, “They can play in traffic and they embrace contact. ” But for Miller to be the driving force in that effort, he needed to unlock aspects of his game that were lacking earlier this season. In the opening weeks, his movements appeared hindered. The 6-foot, 211-pounder was battling for position at the net front and bringing his usual physicality, but he wasn’t covering as much ground or possessing the puck as often as he did while posting three consecutive seasons of 82 points or more in Vancouver. That, in turn, diminished his ability to make plays. Miller brushed aside a question about lingering effects from a lower-body injury suffered near the end of the training camp, saying, “It’s never perfect, but I don’t want to dig into that. ” But both he and Sullivan acknowledged that he’s looked quicker and more involved lately. “His fitness is improving, ” Sullivan said. “His overall speed is improving. And I think he has the puck a lot more because of it. ” The numbers bear that out. Miller sat below the 50th percentile in top skating speed through early November, according to NHL Edge, but has risen to the 61st percentile by clocking some of his fastest times in recent weeks. He won’t be mistaken for a burner at this stage of his career, but he’s crept up to the 88th percentile in bursts between 20-22 miles per hour after initially lagging behind. That’s led to extra puck touches and growing confidence, which Miller called “the difference between two weeks ago and (now). ” But he also cautioned against complacency following a short stretch of productivity. He knows as well as any that the Rangers need him (and Zibanejad, for that matter) to maintain this level if they’re going to stay competitive in a crowded Eastern Conference playoff race. “It’s funny: When you’re in it and everything’s going well, it looks good, ” he said. “We just had a good week. It’s like, you’re on top of the world. We just can’t think like that. We’ve got to erase yesterday and just move on. We talk about identity and standard — but if you do it every day, you should never have to talk about it. It’s just part of the DNA of the group. That’s been the focus. ” Vincent Z. Mercogliano is a Senior Writer for The Athletic covering the New York Rangers. He previously covered the team for The Journal News/lohud. com and the USA TODAY Network. The Hofstra University graduate is also the on-air Rangers analyst for SNY TV.