Kevan Miller on enduring spear to the groin: “It's part of the gig”

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MONTREAL – They don’t make them much tougher than Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller.

The 31-year-old stay-at-home defenseman proved that again on Saturday night when he endured a Brendan Gallagher spear to the groin at the end of the first period, and didn’t totally lose his cool in a 3-2 Bruins win over the Habs at the Bell Centre.

Sure both Gallagher and Miller ended up getting whistled for matching penalties of slashing and roughing to start the second period after the B’s defenseman knocked the diminutive Gallagher to the ice for his below-the-belt transgressions. But he stopped short of dropping the gloves and wailing on Gallagher, which is probably exactly what the hard-hitting D-man wanted to do right after getting a raised stick up between his legs while battling in front of the net.

Miller knows how valuable he is to the Bruins with Zdeno Chara, Brandon Carlo and Charlie McAvoy among others still missing from the Boston back end, and it played out that way with him logging 25:47 of ice time in the win. After the game Miller shrugged off the incident, particularly after Gallagher apologized to him from the opposing penalty box at the start of the second period.

“It’s part of the gig,” said a matter-of-fact Miller about the spear to the groin. “You could see by my reaction that I wasn’t too happy. I could have [jumped him]. To be honest with you I could have. Should I have? Maybe. But I didn’t and it’s part of the game. It’s not a good part of the game, but it’s a part of the game.

“He apologized in the box and said he was sorry. Sometimes the heat of the moment gets you. It’s a part of the game. It is what it is.”

Several NHL players have been fined in the recent past for similar spears to the groin as the one Gallagher pulled off on Saturday night, but it doesn’t appear that the pesky Habs forward is going to face any supplemental discipline.

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Miller finished with four hits and five blocked shots in the physical, heavy game against the Canadiens, and absolutely drilled Jonathan Drouin with a hard hit behind the Montreal net in the second period. He said afterward it wasn’t any kind of retribution for the incident with Gallagher at the end of the first period, but Gallagher might be well advised to watch out for Miller in his path the next time the Bruins and Habs face each other this season. 

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