Any player returning to an arena where they previously plied their trade follows a familiar script. These days, even any player who suited up for more than 12 minutes seems to get a tribute video. You know what they look like. Smash cuts of various highlights–goals, celebrations, probably a fight, one shot of said player smiling on the bench during a game, saluting the fans after a game, all set to something off a Starbucks CD. Rinse, repeat.
It’s all well and good for most players. J.T. Miller isn’t most players. He got the same tribute from Rogers Arena, Canucks video team, and the Canucks fans. There was scant mention that the reason he wasn’t in Vancouver anymore is because he was such a raging asshat that no one in the dressing room could stand him anymore. Also, his video tribute came after Carson Soucy’s, who didn’t even manager 100 games for the Canucks. That’s like missing out on employee of the month to an inanimate carbon rod.
Imagine your ex walks into the bar, after a particularly nasty break-up. Not only is it bad enough to have to be in the same place with them, but then all your friends embrace them as if none of the past happened and the relationship was actually just one constant Met Gala. In fact, there’s probably been like six Modern Family episodes that deal with this very scenario. That’s basically what the Canucks roster had to go through, all while still focusing on the dinner plates Miller broke on his way out the door.
To review: Vancouver had to move Miller because his rift with Elias Pettersson had gotten so toxic it had sunk the whole team. The Canucks went from winning the division in ’23-’24 to being a traveling ennui wagon last season and missing the playoffs. Everyone was utterly miserable, Pettersson and just about everyone else stopped scoring, Miller kept yelling at everyone, as his way, and had to be moved along just so everyone could keep their sanity. All this happened while Rick Tocchet stared blankly from the bench and let his friends in the media continue to peddle what a great job he was doing, but that’s another story for another time.
Making it all the weirder is that neither the Canucks or Rangers have been all that good this season. The Canucks are under .500, and the Rangers have the second-lowest point-total in the East. That was after they spent three home games testing how much it would take for New York fans to actually pelt them with vegetables. Which would have happened, if any Rangers fan knew what a vegetable was.
So there were the Canucks, watching the guy who basically torched this iteration of the team and drove all of them to distraction, getting a video tribute and standing ovation as their season has yet to really take off. Perhaps content in the knowledge that Miller’s win-or-I’ll-kill-you method of captaincy hasn’t really translated to the other side either, but still wondering if anyone remembered how everyone got there in the first place.
No wonder they proceeded to get shutout. Would you bother?
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post J.T. Miller’s Return To Vancouver Was Awkward AF appeared first on Heavy Sports.