Canucks' J.T. Miller opens up about his rocky relationship with the media

Bob Frid/USA TODAY Sports

Last season appeared to affect Vancouver Canucks forward J.T. Miller in a profound way.

Speaking with former NHL enforcer Cam Janssen and longtime St. Louis hockey reporter Andy Strickland on the Cam and Strick Podcast, Miller opened up about what happened last year, including his take on the negative media attention he received.

“I try my best to stay out of it. I’m not on social or anything. My wife has my Instagram account on her phone for charitable reasons. I don’t even have the app on my phone. So I try to stay off it, I’m not on Twitter or anything. It’s impossible to completely get out of the way, especially out there,” Miller said.

It does seem that he’s well aware about what was said and written about him though.

Though Miller ended up scoring an impressive 82 points in 81 games, that only told part of the story for the fiery forward last season. Miller struggled defensively early on, so much so that former head coach Bruce Boudreau moved him from centre to the wing.

The Canucks were dreadful defensively last season and Miller took a lot of the blame. Only Oliver Ekman-Larsson had a worse plus-minus than Miller at the time of Boudreau’s firing, with Miller sitting at -16.

“It turns a little toxic. It turned just very negative. It felt like everybody was looking for something to grab onto. I mean, you could write a book about last season. About everything, from our start to Travis getting fired two years ago to Bruce coming in. The whole sh*t show with Bruce at the end of his tenure. I don’t even know what to say. It was just so bad. It’s just another season I kind of want to erase.”

Due to his ability, age, contract status, and the trajectory of the team, Miller appeared to be an obvious trade candidate. Miller was also frequently mentioned in trade rumours and reports from the league’s top insiders outside of Vancouver for the better part of 18 months.

He now controls his own destination, as Miller’s no-movement clause kicked in along with his new seven-year, $56 million contract extension on July 1. It has effectively ended all trade speculation.

“I’m definitely excited that we’re kind of turning the page and moving on and can put some things in the past with the deadline and all the rumours about people getting traded. It’s just a sh*t show, to say the least.”

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Janssen said his strategy with the media when he played was to “kiss their ass” and asked Miller if he was tempted to do the same to help change his perception.

“They’re rumours. I’m not the guy to get caught up in a rumour. If it came from my agent or my general manager, then it’s something. But typically, when that sh*t happens, the media — there’s a couple big names in the media that aren’t in Vancouver — they typically can get onto that. I don’t get attached to that stuff.

“To be honest I have way too much pride to kiss their ass anyway, and I would tell them that to their face. I would actually rather stir the pot with some of them than have them say something nice about me… It’s not all of them, I just can’t stand some of them. I think they know I feel that way, so it’s not really anything to hide.”

While Miller seems to have a problem with some members of the media, he did seem understanding of Canucks fans, who haven’t seen a playoff game at Rogers Arena since 2015. Vancouver has the fifth-worst cumulative record in the eight NHL seasons since then.

“There’s a reason to be pissed if you’re a fan. No question. They’re loyal and they care, and they have tons and tons of passion. It reminds me of playing in New York. I would rather have a fan that cared than didn’t care. Honestly. I’m not saying I promote the jerseys on the ice. I spoke on behalf of that before. I have a ton of passion myself.”

Miller was a lightning rod for criticism. He was seen yelling at teammate Collin Delia, slamming his stick on the back of the net in an extremely bizarre situation in December. He also got into an on-ice argument with teammate Luke Schenn during the Canucks’ home opener in October.

Miller was also ripped by the Hockey Night in Canada panel for a lack of effort on a backcheck in Calgary on New Year’s Eve. That criticism came from one of hockey’s most respected insiders, Elliotte Friedman, as well as former players in Kelly Hrudey and Kevin Bieksa.

Miller explained that the Delia situation was him being upset about the team not having a plan for getting Delia off the ice and that the Schenn argument began from him wanting better communication on the ice. And he said the Calgary backchecking incident came from being emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted.

“I feel like I’m constantly trying to explain myself. There’s enough people that understand me that I get pretty good sleep at night,” Miller said.

Miller may think the issue is overblown, but his own head coach Rick Tocchet did point out the importance of “body language” on multiple occasions after taking over in January. And to Miller’s credit, he did improve in that area after Tocchet was hired.

“Last year was the first time I’ve ever felt in that position where I felt like the only thing that mattered was optics and that’s a sad place, I think. I think there were three or four moments last year that I let… the media define my season with a couple of those moments. I think that that’s just really sad,” Miller said.

“Are there things that I regret in the course of a game? A hundred per cent. But we were dealing with so much turmoil and so much BS outside of Xs and Os of hockey, that I think I got outside of my lane in trying to help everything, and I should have just been worried about playing hockey.”

The noise surrounding Miller did quiet after Tocchet was hired in January, and that’s also when Miller’s game took off. Miller scored 41 points in 35 games with Tocchet behind the bench and had the second-best plus-minus (+9) on the team during that span.

It all underlines the importance of getting off to a good start in October. The media pressure isn’t going away, and neither is the passion of the Canucks fan base.

Vancouver didn’t win until the eighth game of the season last year, ramping up the pressure on everyone right from the start. The Canucks were booed off the ice in the first home game of the season, with multiple jerseys hitting the ice as fans expressed their disgust.

The Canucks haven’t had a winning record after the first 10 games of a season in four years.

Do that and Canucks players should have a calmer start to the season.