No one has ever questioned Kevan Miller’s toughness during his tenure with the Boston Bruins.
Known for his scrappy play and willingness to throw his body around, Miller has been a physical presence on the blue line during his time with the Black and Gold. But that doesn’t mean he’s without fear.
Miller admitted that when he took a John Tavares shot to the throat Nov. 26, it was a scary moment for the 31-year-old defenseman.
“Yeah, the doc said I was very fortunate that it didn’t go the other way,” Miller told WEEI’s Matt Kalman.
“So definitely the first 20 or 30 minutes, I was having some really tough time breathing, my body kind of went into a little bit of shock,” Miller added. “And then after the 30-minute window the docs kind of gave me the ‘hey it could go bad or it can go good.’ And it started to get better and I was very, very thankful for that. So it could’ve been a lot worse, so I got to look on the bright side of things.
“I had oxygen on and then once I was kind of able to calm myself and calm the breathing down I was able to breathe through my nose instead of my mouth. And then they monitored me for a while and made sure I was stable and thankfully things turned around pretty quickly. Got the X-rays and got the bad news at that point.”
Miller will miss his 11th straight game when the Bruins host the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night at TD Garden, but there is hope he could return to the lineup as early as next week, Kalman reported.
Miller has two assists in 11 games for the Bruins while averaging 18:47 time on ice.
