Ryan Miller

$%!@. !@%$. !%@$#.

Racing needs to figure out a way to keep its stars in the game.

For me it was Jim Craig.

I walked around with a red and white bedsheet, draped over my back, for weeks after the 'Miracle on Ice.' My dad kept telling me Tretiak was the better goalie but try telling a seven year old it isn't all about the 'W'.

Recently transplanted to equatorial Siberia, one doesn't find opportunity to work on the glove hand much, so my platonic obsession turned to "Toni" Schumacher. When Koln (I don't know how to type the umlaut) lost the Bundesliga championship to Hamburg, in 1982, I cried for a week.

And my dad told me the best goalie doesn't always win.

After the 1982 World Cup, you couldn't talk to me, although, in truth, Renat Dasaev was the best goalie in the tournament.

And my dad told me the best goalie doesn't win.

Ryan Miller, if I were not already a goalie and a hockey freak, would be my man-crush. If he didn't play for Buffalo, I would be stalking his ass right now.

How many kids will walk away from these....quadrennial sporting events, set in Alpine locales, during the time between the Autumnal and Vernal equinox...thinking about hockey and wanting to be like Ryan Miller? How many will follow that dream and accomplish great things in that game? How many will become damn Sabres fans?

And he deserves for them to be.

Ryan Miller will go back and play for the Sabres. He will be there for this new generation of fans to follow. They will have an interest in the game because he will be there for them. They are hooked and will probably stay hooked because the catalyst for their interest will remain in the equation.

He will, if the Sabres are smart, stay there for a while. He won't retire for stud duties (though, admittedly, that might lure even me away) or lucrative commercial endorsements. He lost and received resounding applause from knowledgeable fans. Nobody thought less of him in defeat.

In fact, I think they thought more.

After tonight's game, my daughter cried for a little while. She doesn't really understand what happened but she knows when her old man is acting like a freak and what losing looks like (she is a Cubs fan).

Tonight, it was my turn, to let her know, the best goalie doesn't always win.