An NHL scout who has seen the Buffalo Sabres enough to realize something isn't right about this season's group was asked about their franchise goalie, Ryan Miller. Miller was yanked Monday night in the Detroit Red Wings' 5-0 win over the Sabres, Buffalo's ninth consecutive road loss.
"I don't see the fire. There's just not the same fire," the scout observed. "I don't see that in him like I did a couple years ago."
Embarrassed in front of friends and family in his home state, there was fire after the game from Miller. Plenty of it. Enough to ruin audio tape for Buffalo reporters looking to immediately put sound clips online or use on the radio.
Miller was asked the questions we're all wondering: What next? Do you blow things up in Buffalo? Do you fire the coach? Do you wipe the slate clean from top to bottom? Is there a major trade out there that can shake life into a team that desperately needs it?
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- Senior NHL writer for ESPN The Magazine
- Wrote for Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- Wrote for The Sporting News
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Craig Custance
Craig Custance joined ESPN in September 2011 as an NHL reporter for ESPN the Magazine, ESPN Insider and ESPN.com. A graduate of Michigan State University, he lived for nearly a decade in Georgia working for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution where he spent time covering the late Atlanta Thrashers. He was the only Thrashers beat writer to get the team to the playoffs.
From 2008-11 he was the national hockey writer for the Sporting News, writing regularly in print and online. A member of the PHWA, he's a proud voter for the major NHL awards and can occasionally defend his selections.
Like hockey, he left Atlanta to return north where he currently lives in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, with his wife Cassie and their three kids.
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