Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) -- In his last three games Ryan Miller has given up 12 goals and lost all three. Miller got the night off in Columbus on Saturday and the whole team got Sunday off. Today he worked hard before and during the 70 minute practice. Miller said that is exactly what he needed, "We got back to work, it's something we haven't done in awhile is get a goalie practice in just because of the schedule has been a little crazy, the road trip coming off it, trying to preserve energy. Today was a good day, I got 25 minutes of work in with Patty and some of the boys, so those are the little things that go a long way, things you don't have to think about on the ice when you're playing that you have to refine. I like to do that at least once a week and it's a couple of weeks where we just didn't have the time. For the goalies, we probably could've been better at getting what we needed and speaking up and maybe skipping a few other things to get our work done, so it felt good getting back to that and I'll be more cognoscente of that moving forward."
As far as his consistency goes Miller said, "Yah last game, olay, that was not a great goal, but I can really look back on very few amount of games where I really haven't felt good out there and in the last three games, I've actually felt pretty good. Against Pittsburgh you just get scored on, things happen around you that maybe you can make a better play on but they'd just end up in the net, but I've had games where I've made mistakes and had shutouts this year and I've had some games where I've made some mistakes and they've burned me, so I'm going to take it in stride and just go out and compete. The big thing is you let things start to creep into your head then you get uneasy and lose some of that confidence as a team and that's exactly the wrong way to think. You have to believe that you're right there, you have to believe that what you're doing is the right thing, you have to trust that you have a good system in place and you don't scrap everything you've worked for based on a stretch of games. It's bigger than that, it's a season."
Lindy Ruff said Pat Kaleta's bone bruise is coming along, but slowly. He had further tests and they were negative. Steve Montador missed practice with a hip problem, but could be back on the ice tomorrow.
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