from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,
There was a reason that the Rangers prioritized Vladimir Tarasenko when seeking to fill a top-six hole on the right side and were willing to sacrifice a first-rounder in order to acquire the wing from St. Louis by jumping the market three weeks before the trade deadline.
The problem is, you wouldn’t know it by reviewing the way the club has utilized the 31-year-old through the first five games of the Battle of the Hudson. It is as if, upon the acquisition of Patrick Kane 18 days later, Tarasenko became kind of an afterthought.
Get this: Tarasenko, a prime force in the Blues’ 2019 Stanley Cup championship, is seventh among Rangers forwards in both overall ice time and power-play ice time. The 11:46 he got in Game 1 represented the second-lowest ice time he has had in 95 career playoff games, getting less only in his NHL postseason debut as a rookie in 2013.
Games 1, 2 and 5 were three of the eight playoff games in which Tarasenko has gotten the least amount of ice time over his career. It is impossible to believe that was the plan when general manager Chris Drury acquired him.
Some crazy wild series unfolding that only the Stanley Cup playoffs can produce.
Speaking of Wild, this buyout is absolutely brutal. Long time KK readers will remember the late Red Wings owner Mr. I pursuing Ryan Suter in free agency in 2012, personally traveling to Suters family home in Wisconsin.
Infamous A2Y Creator IWOCPO hit high levels of his noted jocularity, chiding the upper midwest natives Parise and Suter for their twin signings with Minnesota by referring to them as the Ingalls sisters.
They did make the playoffs 8 times in 9 years with the Wild, but only getting to the second round on occasion. Suter was +62 in his Wild career. The 2012 lavish contract of 13 years, $98M for each over time evolved into a moderate, less than $8M per season average, however the production level of both substantially dropped off in their last seasons, prompting this expensive and long lasting buyout.
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