Miller draws comparisons to Kesler during Canucks playoff run  

The Vancouver Canucks are led by a center counted on to drive offense and check the other the team's top lines. A player who relies as much on emotion and competitiveness as he does skill, and someone who can annoy teammates as well as the opposition.

It's a statement that's as true today about J.T. Miller as it was 15 years ago about Ryan Kesler.

"Obviously he was an emotional guy and looked grumpy probably out there, so I'm assuming that's also what they're drawn to," Miller said of the comparisons.

Miller had a good laugh at that last part but was honored when told Kesler had said on a Vancouver radio station that Miller was the better player.

"That's pretty cool to hear that," he said. "[Kesler] is a player I looked up to when I was coming into the League."

Miller is a big reason the Canucks eliminated the Nashville Predators in six games in the Western Conference First Round on Friday.

He tied for the Vancouver lead with six points (one goal, five assists) in six games against Nashville, was one the ice for six of the Canucks' eight even-strength goals and won 58.5 percent of his face-offs.

During the regular season, Miller had a team-best 103 points (37 goals, 66 assists) in 81 games, helping Vancouver win a division title for the first time since Kesler helped it win five straight from 2009-13, a period that included a trip to the 2011 Stanley Cup Final.

Kesler, now 39, had 573 points (258 goals, 315 assists) in 1,001 games with the Canucks and Anaheim Ducks after being a first-round pick by Vancouver (No. 23) at the 2003 NHL Draft.

"I know I'm compared a lot to J.T. Miller, I hear that a lot," Kesler said. "Even though I think he's a better player than I was, he's got to be a big piece of the puzzle. They're going to need him to be at the top of his game."

Kesler is a Canucks fan and watches as many games as he can from his home in Michigan. But he got an up-close look when he traveled to Vancouver for Game 2 of the first round.

What stood out to Kesler was how Miller played in the 4-1 loss. Not so much the three shots on goal he had in 22:19 of ice time, but rather the leadership and control he took of any situation.

"I felt like I was a student of the game when I played," Kesler said. "And watching him, especially in Game 2, just watching him off every face-off basically explain to everybody where he wanted them or on the face-off what they're doing, where he wants people to go.

"He's passionate. You can see it in his face. You see it in the way he competes, and I feel like I played the similar way."

Seeing what happened between the whistles, the angles you don't always get on television, Kesler found it all very informative.

"Just seeing how his body language and how he is and how he was at the face-off, the stuff you don't see on TV," he said. "I've watched him on TV a ton, but you can see so much more when you're live. You can see how they are on the bench, you can see how they skate off from a shift after a negative play or a positive play, and I thought he handled himself really good."

Kesler believes having that approach comes from a background of strong preparation. It certainly did for him; he treated each regular-season game, as well as the 101 he played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs during his 15 NHL seasons, like a college exam.

"I don't know [Miller's] game-day routine or how he prepares for games, but the way I was, I would have to be super serious," Kesler said. "I would have to study the opposition. I'd have to know every tendency. I'd have to write it down. I was very meticulous. In between pregame skate and the game at night, I would study, I would take notes. I would go over the notes when I woke up from my 30-minute [pregame] nap, if I took a nap at all. I'd almost take each game like a test.

"Every game, I'd do the same thing. I'd write down the notes I wanted to focus on, tendencies, how to beat them. Face-offs, the different guys on what they do and what they're successful at. And you try to find weaknesses from game to game, series to series. ... I have a feeling that he's a similar way with that approach."

Miller is just as meticulous, but in more of a technological way.

"I just watch a lot of video," he said. "I'm a visual guy. I can talk game plan all day, but I've got to see it. ... I guess I'm a bit of probably a perfectionist in a sense where I want to know exactly down to the point where the coaches and I argue because they want me to be more hybrid and creative a little bit. I'm very Type-A; I've got to have it structured. I want to be like that."

Chris Higgins has the unique perspective of seeing both approaches up close. He was Kesler's teammate for six seasons in Vancouver, including with the 2011 Cup Final team, and has worked in hockey operations and broadcasting for the Canucks since 2019.

"They hold themselves to such high standards," Higgins said. "I think it's another reason that's maybe why they come across as grumpy. They're perfectionists, they're always striving for the perfect game where they made absolutely no mistakes. They're always in constant pursuit of that, and that's why guys are drawn to those type of personalities."

Kesler's personality could make him difficult to get along with, and Miller has faced similar criticism during his 12 seasons with the Canucks, Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers.

"He is not afraid to say what's on his mind," Vancouver defenseman Ian Cole said of Miller. "But everyone knows it comes from a place of wanting to win and pushing everyone, including himself, to be the very best he can be. I think a lot of people respect that.

“Whether you may get feathers ruffled in the process, everyone respects what he brings and how he does it."

That's similar to how Kesler was regarded during his time in Vancouver.

He had no issue speaking up as a fiery alternate captain to a quieter captain in center Henrik Sedin. In much the same way, Miller brings an emotional approach to his role as an alternate to a quieter captain in defenseman Quinn Hughes.

"I think any captain in the NHL would say it's not just him, it's the leadership group that you have, and that includes the [alternates] and even some guys that don't wear letters," Kesler said. "Talking to people, they talk about Quinn and how good a captain he is. I think J.T. is a lot different than Quinn in that way, just like I was a lot different than 'Hanky.'

"We play with passion, we play with almost like an anger. And for me, I had to hate the opposition. I feel like J.T. is the same way."

That mutual hatred of the opposition clashed one time, during a game between Kesler's Ducks and Miller's Rangers on Dec. 22, 2015, when a few bumps along the boards led to gloves dropping.

"We both got under each other's skins and on each other's nerves and it's like, ‘Alright, let's do this,’" Kesler said. "I was grumpy. I believe I asked him and he said, ‘Yeah,’ then we went."

The moment resonated with Miller, who was in his fourth NHL season.

"That was pretty cool," he said. "I looked up to him as a player. ... A lot of cross-checking and stick battles. It was just hard battles."

These days, Kesler enjoys watching Miller fight those battles as a fan.

Those late-night viewings are what led Kesler to declare Miller the superior player.

"I know how special [Kesler] was to this team on a couple of those playoff runs and how big of a player, if not the best player, in a couple runs there," Miller said. "A guy that I looked up to in a sense of 200-feet [play]. For him to say that, that's obviously a [heck] of a compliment."