Colin Miller had not played an NHL game since Feb. 14. He has spent the last six weeks in the American Hockey League (AHL). The Bruins were not satisfied with Miller’s positioning and decision-making in the defensive zone prior to his reassignment.

Yet by promoting Miller from Providence on Tuesday, the Bruins declared him a better option than Zach Trotman for one of the regular season’s three remaining games.

“One of the good things for him, being a young player, is that he got to play regularly,” coach Claude Julien said of Miller’s 19-game run in Providence (4-8-12). “He got some of those kinks out of his game.”

Miller played 12:45, least of any defenseman, recording one shot in a 2-1 shootout loss to Carolina. He drew a tripping penalty on Jordan Staal in overtime, but Miller wiped out the power play by embellishing the fall.

“He’s a guy that can move the puck well, a guy that can shoot the puck well, skates well. At times, he was a little erratic in our own end. So he had an opportunity to go down there, play a lot more, and try and work on that part of his game.”

Miller’s game is about skating, retrieving pucks, moving them swiftly the other way, and supporting the attack. He has shown hints of doing these things well with the varsity.

But by the end of his previous stay, Miller’s confidence had dwindled to the point where he was not applying his assets enough. He was not reliable in the defensive zone. Offensively, Miller fought to unleash his better-than-average slapper. When he launched pucks, they didn’t hit the net enough.

So the Bruins assigned him to Providence for regular shifts to develop his defensive game and regain the swagger he had lost.

“Just getting a little bit of confidence back,” Miller said. “It’s obviously better when you’re playing a lot more and playing a lot of minutes. You’re back into the flow and back into the game. It was good. It was good to be down there and get my legs back under me.”