{"id":508794,"date":"2026-03-18T01:52:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/508794\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T01:52:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T01:52:17","slug":"rangers-mike-sullivan-admits-this-season-has-been-hard-on-j-t-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/508794\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers’ Mike Sullivan admits this season has ‘been hard’ on J.T. Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the eyes of Mike Sullivan, it\u2019s not an easy question to answer. Just when the Rangers think they\u2019re close to getting the best version of J.T. Miller \u2014 their captain, the former 103-point scorer \u2014 an injury pops up<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Miller has spent two stints on injured reserve for separate injuries and he also missed a pair of games in November for the injury that landed him on IR the first time a month later. <\/p>\n

And around those absences, Miller has collected just 38 points in 53 games entering Wednesday\u2019s matchup with the Devils at the Garden, putting him on track for his fewest across a full campaign with at least 60 games played since 2018-19.<\/p>\n

Sullivan, in defense of the struggling Miller, admitted that it\u2019s been a \u201cdifficult\u201d year and said that Miller is still someone the Rangers \u2014 in the middle of a retool after The Letter 2.0<\/a> \u2014 \u201ccan build an identity around.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know it\u2019s been hard on him,\u201d Sullivan told reporters after the Rangers practiced Tuesday. \u201cIt\u2019s been hard on him because obviously he has high expectations of himself and the group, and when we don\u2019t meet those, I think nobody feels it more than the leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller hasn\u2019t scored for the Blueshirts since Jan. 26, and he has collected just two points in the five games he\u2019s played once the Olympic break ended and Miller returned from his time with Team USA in Milan, where he served an integral role on a penalty kill<\/a> that didn\u2019t allow a goal en route to the gold medal.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Rangers center J.T. Miller (8) takes a shot during the first period when the New York Rangers played the Philadelphia Flyers Thursday, February 26, 2026. Robert Sabo for NY Post<\/p>\n

But there have been chances for Miller to still produce. Have been flashes of his vintage form. He nearly capitalized on a rebound in the first period of Monday\u2019s loss to the Kings, but Los Angeles goaltender Darcy Kuemper collected the puck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He collected four goals and 10 points in 13 games before landing on injured reserve after absorbing a hit against the Flyers in December. <\/p>\n

Sullivan placed him right back on the first power-play unit last week after Miller returned from injured reserve, bumping Gabe Perreault to the second group in a puzzling move too.<\/p>\n

Near the end of the Rangers\u2019 lost season, even with numbers depicting a down year, Sullivan still hasn\u2019t strayed from trusting Miller.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Rangers center J.T. Miller reacts on the ice. JASON SZENES\/ NY POST<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRead the expert take on the Blueshirts\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Rangers, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we rely on him in so many areas of our game \u2014 in particular to produce offense, and he puts a lot of pressure on himself because he knows that he can help the team in that regard,\u201d Sullivan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of conversations with J.T. over the course of the year, and he cares deeply about what\u2019s going on here with our organization and the Rangers and he takes his responsibilities as the leader of the team very seriously and he wears it. He cares a lot about what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the eyes of Mike Sullivan, it\u2019s not an easy question to answer. Just when the Rangers think…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5111],"tags":[5,2685,2310,3328,35,5190,5193,4,36,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-508794","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-rangers","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-j-t-miller","10":"tag-mike-sullivan-nhl","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-rangers","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkrangers","15":"tag-nhl","16":"tag-rangers","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116247682073835662","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}