Miller can clearly see how lucky he is after skate carved face
As Drew Miller sprinted off the ice, blood pouring from his face into his left glove, his hockey life flashed through his mind.
"I was so worried that I lost my eye, that my hockey career was over and that my life was going to be totally different with losing an eye," the veteran Red Wings forward said Wednesday.
The night before, 12 seconds into his first shift, he was skating toward the boards to help linemate Luke Glendening dig out the puck when Ottawa center Mark Stone's fell forward, his skate flying up behind him and clipping Miller across his left cheek and eye orbital.
"I couldn't believe how bad it was," said teammate Justin Abdelkader, who was on the Detroit bench when Miller skated off the ice for help. "I could tell when he skated off the ice he was in a lot of pain. He was real scared, looking at his facial expression, like he knew something really bad happened."
"I wasn't sure if my eye was gone or what was going on," Miller said. "My first reaction was to get to a doctor."
Some long moments later, after holding a blood-soaked towel to his face, he was able to look up at the medics with both eyes. And he saw them perfectly -- with both eyes.
"Thank god it wasn't that bad," Miller said. "It was a blessing. Someone out there was looking out for me."
Nearly 60 stitches later, Miller was patched up and ready to go. This is hockey, after all, and there were two huge points on the line against the Senators.
"I wanted to come back in for the third (period)," he said. "But all the doctors -- and my wife (Colleen) -- came to the conclusion that I probably shouldn't go back out just for the sake of not ripping the stitches."
Nearly 60 stitches later, Drew Miller is patched up and ready to go.
Miller is hoping to play Thursday night against the visiting Boston Bruins in another important, four-point divisional game, but will need medical clearance.
That's hockey -- a game played with frozen rubber pucks flying around at 100 mph, composite sticks that can quickly become a dangerous weapon in the wrong or careless hands, with players the size of middle linebackers flying around on razor-sharp steel blades that can carve up a player in a heartbeat.
So Miller survived an awful scare, and after skating with his team in practice Wednesday, he looked a little worse for the wear. But rarely has a face better personified a team that endured a horrible month of March and put itself in jeopardy of losing a playoff berth that seemed so secure when the month began.
But his face will heal, and a little plastic surgery could make him look as good as new again -- just as a few victories in the Wings' final six games will quell a lot of anxieties as they head to the postseason for the 24th straight season.
For a moment there, though, this playoff race paled in comparison to the concern a hockey team and many of its fans felt for player who has given so much to a team having what has been a wonderfully successful season.
Miller, 31 and in his seventh season with the Wings, anchors a shutdown penalty-killing unit, and as one of his team's top defensive forwards he never hesitates to throw his body into pucks to help his goaltenders.
"The facial scar, I can deal with that," he said. "It was the eye I was most worried about. You want to have a normal life after hockey -- with both eyes that can see. So that's something I'm very thankful for."
ICE CHIPS: Center Pavel Datsyuk, out Tuesday for the sixth time in eight games with a lower-body injury, did not skate Wednesday. He, along with center Riley Sheahan and Erik Cole, are questionable for Thursday's game against Boston. Both have upper-body injuries.
