Boston Bruins’ Miller’s Latest Injury A Foot Infection

When Boston Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller went back out of the lineup a week ago with an injury, everybody assumed it was his troublesome knee acting up again. B’s head coach Bruce Cassidy assured at the time that it wasn’t any issue with his knees, which the Bruins are treating very carefully anyway by holding the veteran defenseman out of back-to-back game situations and skipping most morning skates as well.

The hope is that they can get through a playoff run by carefully practicing “load management” on Miller’s knees, but there’s a question mark whether or not he’s going to avoid any flare-ups during a long postseason run. Either way, though, the 33-year-old defenseman revealed on former Sabres enforcer John Scott’s “Dropping the Gloves” podcast that his latest injury was a nasty cellulitis foot infection caused by an issue with his skates.

We caught up with Kevan Miller about his battle with injuries, losing Chara and Krug in the offseason, some of his biggest fights, hunting, fishing, and a whole lot more.

Listen here: https://t.co/wasr6YrA8K#HockeyTwitter #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/BIGmvdlKBd

— Dropping the Gloves (@dropping_gloves) April 22, 2021

“I’ve got an infection on my foot from my skate. It was rubbing on my foot and it turned into cellulitis and the next thing you know I was in the hospital for a couple days, and on the shelf,” said Miller, just a couple of minutes into the podcast interview. “Eventually I’m just going to buy a lotto ticket because things are going to turn, and it won’t be an issue anymore. But I’m healthy now and ready to play, thankfully.”

Miller has missed a grand total of four games due to the foot infection entering Thursday but is nearing a return to the lineup. As Miller alluded to, the 6-foot-2, 210-pound defenseman is with the Bruins on their current five game road trip and is close to a return as the B’s ready for a Thursday night tilt against the Sabres at KeyBank Arena.

Bruce Cassidy said that both Miller and Steve Kampfer (undisclosed) participated in Wednesday’s practice in Buffalo and were getting closer to a return.

The Boston Bruins pretty clear miss Miller’s sneering physical presence and veteran leadership when he’s out of the lineup and the numbers speak for themselves: The Bruins are 13-4-2 in the 19 games that Miller has played for them this season and look like a different, braver hockey club when his rugged presence is there on the back end.