J.T. Miller opens up on latest struggles, hints at his mental health

It was yet another embarrassing outing by the Vancouver Canucks on home ice Thursday night against the Los Angeles Kings, dropping the game 5-1. In that disastrous game, J.T. Miller played a team low 9:25 at even-strength and logged 14:34 in ice time, 17 seconds less than Phil Di Giuseppe.

A video also went viral from the game in which a heated exchange between Miller and coach Tocchet took place. In the video below, you can see the argument between Miller and Tocchet before the forward heads down the bench and sits at the end of it.

When meeting with reporters after the brutal loss, Miller opened up on the struggles and hinted at the mental battle he’s going through:

“It’s hard,” Miller said Thursday night per Sportsnet. “I’m trying to be mentally strong. And I think this is where your character shows, in moments like this. So today, my mindset was to work my ass off and see what happens. And I really still think I did that, but it’s just costly mistakes right now. I just need to focus more.

“It doesn’t matter what I do, I’m on the wrong side right now, and it’s on me. I’m a leader on the team, and the team expects me to be a lot better than this. So that’s my focus.”

Back in November, Miller took a leave of absence from the Canucks for personal reasons, with many insiders hinting at a necessary reset.

Once rumours of a feud between Miller and teammate Elias Pettersson emerged, chatter got out that maybe the former had taken time off to step away from the team’s dressing room.

However, if he is indeed working towards a better mental health, the Canucks’ ongoing struggles, on top of his own on the ice, probably aren’t helping.

He is brave to mention it and we can only hope that the Canucks will be able to get back on track whether it comes after a monster trade or a sudden winning streak.