The photos began circulating on the first day of New York Rangers training camp. They showed players in t-shirts that conveyed the message the club wants to embody this season: “No B.S.”
It’s a slogan on brand with the fiery personality of new Rangers captain J.T. Miller, who was given the honor earlier in the week. It’s how the club’s new head coach, Mike Sullivan, has been running his camp.
More than anything, the Rangers’ “No B.S.” mindset is how they want to play and the attitude Sullivan and general manager and president Chris Drury want to bestow upon their club.
“It’s quite literal,” Miller said Thursday, following the first day of Rangers training camp at the MSG Training Center in Tarrytown. “It literally means, ‘Let’s stick to the team game.’ We want to be a fast, in-your-face, F–U type of team. What are they going to say about the Rangers in their room? What do we want them to think about us? They’re a team that’s not going to give you an easy night type of team.”
Sixteen months ago, it seemed like Miller would spend the rest of his career with the Vancouver Canucks. He’d been the emotional leader of an upstart club that pushed the eventual Stanley Cup runner-up Edmonton Oilers to a second-round Game 7 in 2024.
Along the Canucks’ storybook 2023–24 season, Miller showed up in key moments: a game-winner with 32 seconds left in Game 5 against the Oilers, a goal in Vancouver’s 5–4 comeback win in Game 1 of that series, and three assists in an overtime comeback win in Game 4 of Vancouver’s first round series against the Nashville Predators.
Miller’s Canucks tenure ended amid a reported rift with teammate Elias Pettersson. Over his six-season stint in Vancouver, he was at times criticized for his lack of urgency in backchecking. He once went viral for yelling at former Canucks goalie Collin Delia to leave the ice for an extra skater.
The book is out on Miller. He amplifies what’s going on, be it positive or negative. The Rangers, in selecting Miller, whom they acquired in a trade from the Canucks on Jan. 31, as captain, are betting on the upside.
“Just the way he prepares, he plays, how hard he competes,” Drury said Wednesday before training camp opened. “He goes over the boards looking to get into the fight, and he drags people into it. That’s what we need, and we’re excited to have him as our captain.”
Drury and Sullivan’s instructions to Miller, the forward said, were simple: “Just be yourself.”
“I’m an emotional player,” Miller said. “Wear my heart on my sleeve, and I try to put that for 80, 90 percent of the good. But I really appreciate them believing in me enough to play my game and also work at the parts I don’t like to. And now having an extended role, I think that’s something I’m really going to take a lot more pride in.”
Miller is in his second stint with New York. He was drafted 15th overall by the Rangers in 2011 and was originally with the organization until he was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2018. If you’d asked him then, he’d never have expected to one day wear the “C.” He named Ryan McDonagh and Ryan Callahan, the two captains during his first stint with the Rangers, as players he’s learned from.
The Rangers, like the Canucks, are coming off a tumultuous campaign. Following their six-game Conference Final loss to the Florida Panthers in 2024, Drury sought a roster shake-up. Barclay Goodrow was placed on waivers and claimed by the San Jose Sharks. Amid a memo sent to the NHL’s other 31 GMs that Chris Kreider and former captain Jacob Trouba were on the trade block, New York cratered to a 4–15–0 freefall — one they never pulled themselves out of.
Miller wasn’t enough to lift the Rangers back into a playoff spot, but his impact, especially on the struggling Mika Zibanejad, was evident. Before Miller arrived, Zibanejad had 29 points in 50 games. In the 15 games following the trade, he had 19 points. Miller had 35 points in 40 games with Vancouver. In his first 15 contests back in New York, he had 16 points.
Miller and Zibanejad had a positive expected goal share in the 259:15 they played at five-on-five together post-trade, according to Natural Stat Trick. In the 166:16 Miller played at five-on-five sans Zibanejad, the Rangers had an expected goal share of 37.98. And following the trade, when Zibanejad played without Miller, New York’s expected goal share was 47.47.
Coach Sullivan began camp with the two paired together on a line. After the first day of camp, he said he likes to work with the forwards in tandems to build chemistry, with a rotating third player to see if he has a complementary skillset. Miller and Zibanejad are one such pair, he said. Vincent Trocheck and Artemi Panarin are others.
Sullivan pushed the pace in camp. Reporters in attendance have heard him shout. “Everything we’re doing is too f—ing slow!” he yelled on Thursday. On Friday: “No bulls—!”
Sullivan’s coaching experience has taught him that the only way to get players to be the best version of themselves is by pushing them. He said he warned his players during meetings over the summer that he would do so at camp.
Miller described Sullivan’s camp as “high tempo,” adding that the first day involved lots of skating and “mental toughness type of drills.”
“If we’re going to play the game that we want to play, we’ve got to be in shape,” Sullivan said Thursday. “We’ve got to be willing to skate. If you didn’t observe, conditioning and fitness is going to be a priority in this first part of the camp, where we can build a foundation.”
