There was a time where dishing out big hits, shutting down the opposing attack and adding wins to the standings were all in a good day of work for Bruins defenseman Kevan Miller.

Miller has not skated in an NHL game since April 4, 2019, and has faced four knee surgeries in the last 14 months. With setbacks in his road to recovery as common as wearing a mask in public has become these days, Miller considers it a good day when he’s able to tie his shoes or put on a pair of jeans.

"I'm tying my shoes normal again, that's a good thing,” Miller said on zoom Wednesday afternoon. “I'm putting one foot in front of the other. I'm able to put my jeans on like I used to be able to. There's progress for sure."

Miller’s stretch of bad luck began when he fractured his right kneecap after an awkward collision into the boards against the Minnesota Wild at the end of the 2018-19 season.

Rehabbing his fractured knee in hopes of joining the Bruins in their run to the Stanley Cup Final, Miller reinjured the knee during off-ice training, ending any hopes of a postseason return.

Finally able to join his teammates on the ice this past October, Miller suffered another setback which trigged two more knee surgeries.

Although it seems like every time Miller takes a step forward, he takes two giant steps backwards in his road to recovery, Miller is as motivated as ever to get himself back on the ice.

At 32-years old and unrestricted free agency facing Miller once the 2019-20 season concludes, hanging up the skates after facing the adversity he has wouldn’t surprise anybody. But Miller says he’s not quite ready for retirement and hopes to be able to play again someday soon.

“I’d be lying to you if I wasn’t worried like, ‘Hey I don’t know how this is all gonna end up.’ But it’s part of my job. It’s part of my passion. I want to be healthy, right? I want to play. I know I can help the team,” Miller said.

“It’s a tough pill to swallow, like when you’re showing up to the rink and you can’t help the guys and it’s been so long since you’ve been able to play a game. But I’m not losing hope on that at all. If anything, it’s kind of pushing me to push more, to make sure that I’m doing it the right way to get back out there and try and get back to 100%.”

As hungry as Miller is to get back onto the ice and eventually into game action, Miller realizes that getting back to normalcy off the ice is his priority, at least as normal as things can be during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"First and foremost, I just want to be able to function normally here. That's step one, and step two is to be able to do some things off the ice that I was able to do before, and then get 100 percent off the ice,” said Miller. "Once I'm able to cross that bridge, then at that point I'll be able to put the skates back on and be able to perform like I was able to. That's my hope and my goal. I wake up every morning trying to get to that."

As Miller tries to figure out what is next for him both off and on the ice, Miller and his family remain in Colorado where the Miller’s added to the family in January with the birth of their first son. The Miller’s also have a two-year old daughter.

"It's tough to be there for your kids when you're not able to really do as much as you'd like or usually can, be there for your wife, be there for your kids, be present," said Miller. "I'm at that point now where I can certainly help around the house a lot more and I'm looking forward to being able to do more of that and that's one of the big aspects for me."

With the start of the 2020-21 season being pushed back by at least a month, most likely longer, Miller and his rehab certainly benefits from a delayed start next season. Although Miller has no timetable for a return, a CAT scan coming in a few weeks could provide Miller with one.

“That’s kind of where I’m at now, ‘Hey, there’s no real timeline.’ I haven’t circled a date. Before I was circling dates, and now I’m not circling a date and I’m just saying like, ‘Hey, we need to get to that next point, that next mark,’” said Miller.

“We have a CAT scan coming up at 6-8 weeks past the X-ray, so another four to six weeks. And that’ll really tell where I’m at. And then from there, we can look at — I have to start strength training and getting back to that and then eventually I’ll be able to look at where we are on the ice.”

For anyone who has watched Miller during his six years in Boston, you know Miller is as tough as they come. It was no surprise when Miller was named the Bruins nominee last week for the Masterton Trophy. The awarded is given annually “to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to ice hockey”

"First I’d just like to say thank you to all who voted for me for (the Masterton). Honestly it’s a true honor, and I truly appreciate the nomination and I’m hoping to persevere and live up to that nomination and be back on the ice, whenever that may be,” said Miller. “I’m very, very thankful and grateful for all the support, my family, my teammates, the organization has given me through all this.”

As Miller continues to inch closer to normalcy both on and off the ice, Miller admits his pending free agency is something he does not want to deal with right now. Free agency is apparently on the bottom of the list of things Miller is concerned about.

“To be honest with you, I haven’t had any discussions with my agent,” Miller said. “I’m sure my agent has had discussions with the Bruins. I’m sure they talk. I just ask that, you know, I don’t really want to know or deal with that right now. I just want to focus on getting healthy off the ice and then once I’m able to do that, then I could start to think about on-ice stuff and that’s just my goal—is to get back to being 100% healthy off the ice and then I can kind of worry about on the ice.”

Miller has made it very clear that whether it’s back in Boston where he’s played his entire career, or somewhere else in professional hockey, he is determined to get back on the ice.

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