Rangers get first-hand look at why they need player like J.T. Miller

So maybe Chris Drury should have traded for J.T. Miller before the end of Sunday’s game against the Canucks while the Rangers’ president-general manager’s suite was only 20 yards away from his Vancouver counterpart, Jim Rutherford. 

It wasn’t pretty at the Garden, the Blueshirts going down 5-2 in a generally uninspired and uninspiring effort from about midway through the first period to midway through the third, while Miller — an apple of the Rangers’ eye as the March 21 trade deadline approaches — set up both of his team’s two first-period goals. 

The cost of doing business with Rutherford is going to be high, there is no doubt about that. The one-time and perhaps prodigal Ranger leads the Canucks in scoring with 59 points (20-39), good for tied for 10th in the league. Since arriving in Vancouver in 2019-20 by way of Tampa Bay, Miller is 15th in the NHL with 177 points (62-115) in 174 games. 

He is big, is strong on the forecheck, he wins his one-on-ones, has become extremely responsible in his own end and is an elite passer. The Rangers’ kingdom for a player with those attributes to slide in on the right side with Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome. 

The issue, though, is that it might take a kingdom to get the 15th-overall selection of the 2011 entry draft who has another year remaining on his contract under which he carries an average annual value of $5.2 million. In other words, he would become a two-playoff run acquisition. In still other words, there is no urgency for the Canucks to move him over the next three weeks while Rutherford bids him up to needy suitors. 

This one was far more the exception than the rule for the Blueshirts, who did create a fair number of Grade-A opportunities early but could not dent netminder Thatcher Demko. When the first period ended 2-0 the other way when Tanner Pearson and Tyler Myers beat Alexandar Georgiev, who was making his first start in a month, the Rangers sagged all over the ice. It was so bad, in fact, that the club was booed off the ice at the end of the second period after the Canucks had extended the lead to 4-0. 

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“You get some great looks in the first and you leave down two [goals], maybe it’s a little discouraging,” said Strome, who brought the Blueshirts to within 4-2 at 14:03 of the third before the Canucks sealed it with an empty netter. “As you can see, things can change quickly and you have to have a better response in the second period for sure.” 

The Strome-Panarin connection has wavered for a sizable stretch. Neither has played close to his best hockey. Panarin has seemed indecisive, unable to get passes through that he historically can thread through a needle. Strome’s game has been off as opponents have taken away time and space. Panarin has scored two goals in his last nine games while Strome has three in his last 19. 

“We’ve been finding ways to win games but obviously you want to produce as much as you can because that’s what you’re depended on for the team,” Strome said. “The work ethic is there, the compete is there and the will is there but we just have to find the way to bear down at times and get that goal. Sometimes it’s the difference in the hockey game. 

“We got one late, so maybe we can build on that. You start pressing a little bit, you get a little frustrated. The games are a little bit tighter at this point in the season, but we’ve got get to the front of the net and get greasy goals. We’ve got to simplify.” 

Panarin and Strome have primarily played with workmanlike right wings who otherwise carry bottom-six portfolios such as Jesper Fast, Colin Blackwell and, currently, Dryden Hunt. Kaapo Kakko got a run early in the season. All work the boards and do a lot of the grunt work. That’s their type. That has been the dynamic. 

When things went sour in this one, head coach Gerard Gallant flipped Hunt — whose failure to get the puck out led to Vancouver’s first goal — with third-liner Ryan Reaves for the third period. That’s probably not a combination with staying power. 

“Would you love to have a top-end skill guy who scores a lot of goals on that line?” Gallant asked rhetorically on Friday when asked about the line’s composition. “There’s a salary cap just like every other team has, and you wish for certain things, but I like Huntsie there. 

“When he’s playing good hockey, I like what he does there and the most important thing is that both those guys like him.” 

But they would sure like Miller. Who wouldn’t? It is a matter of cost.