Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller finds scoring knack
BOSTON — The Bruins rely on defenseman Kevan Miller to prevent the opposition from scoring, not to put the puck in the net himself.
On Monday night, however, his role reversal didn’t pay off as the Bruins lost, 3-2, to the Nashville Predators at the Garden.
Miller scored a rare goal, but he fell down to help Viktor Arvidsson break a 2-2 tie with 4:56 left.
“I lost an edge there and it happens, but it’s unfortunate timing for sure,” Miller said.
After Miller fell in the Bruins zone, Arvidsson skated past him and toward the net. Miller tried, but couldn’t get back in the play while Arvidsson drew out goaltender Jonas Gustavsson and then tucked the puck into the open net.
“I didn’t think he had that much time,” Gustavsson said, “but I guess I read the situation wrong, but that’s how it is. I tried to poke check it and he managed to get it in.”
Defenseman Joe Morrow was in front of the net, but failed to pick up Arvidsson after Miller fell.
“Obviously, their transition hurt us,” said Patrice Bergeron, whose assist on Loui Eriksson’s goal tied him with Milt Schmidt for 11th on the Bruins’ all-time scoring list with 575 points, “and we didn’t counter it, we didn’t do anything about it and at the end they scored that goal on a transition play.”
Gustavsson kept the Bruins in the game even though Nashville out-shot them, 33-17.
“Gus was great for us, definitely gave us a chance to win,” Miller said.
Miller gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead 4:13 into the game when his shot deflected into the net off the skate of Nashville defenseman Colton Sissons.
“I came down the wall,” Miller said, “and they kind of got mixed up and left me open.”
It was only Miller’s second goal of the season and just his fifth in 107 NHL games. Miller hadn’t scored since Oct. 15. The 28-year-old Los Angeles native returned to the lineup for a 4-0 victory at Vancouver on Saturday night after missing seven games with a concussion.
In his four years at the University of Vermont, Miller scored only five goals in 144 games. In 154 games over four seasons with Providence, he totaled just seven goals. He’s never scored more than three in a season as a pro so considering he has two already this year and it’s early December, he’s well on his way to scoring a career high.
“It feels good,” Miller said.
But it would have felt better to win the game. The Bruins grabbed leads of 1-0 and 2-1, but looked tired after flying home coast to coast from Vancouver.
“It’s just part of the schedule, it’s part of the game,” Miller said, “so you’ve got to be ready for it.”
The Bruins had been 6-0-2 in their last eight games and the Predators had been only 2-5-2 in their last nine. The Bruins had also been 6-0-3 in their last nine games against Nashville. But none of that mattered on Monday when the Bruins spent too much of the game trying to kill off 10 penalties. Roman Josi scored two power-play goals for the Predators. Eriksson scored with a man advantage for Boston.
“It’s tough to get momentum when you’re in the box a lot,” Miller said.
The Bruins had a chance to even their record at home, but fell to 5-7-1 at the Garden.
“I think we put the effort it,” Miller said. “The guys were skating pretty hard. We were doing OK. It just didn’t work out for us.”
—Contact Bill Doyle at william.doyle@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillDoyle15