OPINION

By Kara Yorio

updated 1:17 a.m. ET April 11, 2007

Kara Yorio

Ryan Miller wants no part of this conversation. It is St. Patrick's Day, an off-day in Atlanta for Miller, who is meeting friends. Later that night, his alma mater, Michigan State, will be playing North Carolina in the NCAA basketball tournament. He has things to do, and it's quickly obvious this interview is neither high on his list of priorities nor enjoyable.

Miller's answers are not expansive; then again, by all accounts, he's not all that open with people he doesn't know. It would be easy to hang up the phone and declare Miller just another prickly athlete. But no one, pro athletes included, should be judged on a single phone call, just 10 minutes out of his life. And Miller, the Sabres' 26-year-old goalie, defies easy labeling, anyway.

Former teammate Martin Biron describes Miller as mellow but also driven to succeed at everything he does, on the ice and off. Miller can come off as being well-grounded but looks a little "goalie crazy" when he talks aloud to himself while skating around the ice before a game. He has seemed volatile, particularly early in his NHL career, when his performance didn't meet his steep expectations, but appears almost emotionless and completely calm on the ice, composure he has worked hard to attain. He is a professional athlete in a tough sport but also a talented guitar player and photographer.

And he is the main reason the Sabres will end the long suffering of Buffalo fans and win the Stanley Cup.

"He's just a winner," says Andy Brickley, the Bruins' color commentator and a former NHL player.

Not only has Brickley seen the Sabres play the Bruins seven times this season, but he was assigned by Versus to cover the Sabres as a sideline reporter during last year's conference finals. He has seen Miller and his teammates up close and often.

"He reminds me of the ace of a staff on a championship-caliber major league baseball team," Brickley says. "I think of Jack Morris in Game 7."

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Miller can get the job done, even when he isn't at the top of his game. If his team needs a shutout, he gets it -- or darn near. If he gives up four goals, he makes the saves required to give his team a 5-4 victory.

Goalies coach Terry Barbeau has worked with Miller since the Michigan native arrived in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, when he was 15 to play midget hockey. They talk all year and get together before training camp to hone Miller's game before every new season.

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Barbeau, who currently is the goaltending coach for the Soo Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League, says Miller is the hardest-working goalie he has coached, one whose greatest attribute is his willingness to adapt as necessary.

"It's just building a puzzle," Barbeau says as he watches Miller play the Capitals on television. "You're never finished, always changing and learning."

A key for Miller and all elite goaltenders is learning to forget -- big saves and bad goals. It isn't easy, particularly for a competitor like Miller.

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Every game is an opportunity to gain more knowledge and experience handling specific situations. Miller has dealt with the pressure of expectations throughout his career, including those that came with being the best goaltender ever at Michigan State.

"Expectations always change things," he says. "You learn how to deal with it."

Miller and his teammates have had to learn how to deal with a constantly rotating roster, thanks to a series of key injuries -- both this season and last. Injuries on defense contributed greatly to the Sabres' losing to the Hurricanes in the conference finals. Many thought last season's bad luck couldn't return. But this is Buffalo, where, when it comes to professional sports, there seems to be no limit on painful twists of fate (and ankles and knees).

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