Stars have throttled Tarasenko so far in this series. He needs to step it up tonight! I think the ice time controversy is overblown, here is the most pertinent quote from Hitch:
“When you view a player ... knowledgeable hockey people don’t look at time, they look at shifts, and shifts matter,” Hitchcock said. “He plays a short-ice game with short shifts and that’s impacts his energy. He’s a big body that plays a lot, he gets leaned on, he leans on a lot of people. It’s very wearing.
“The game he plays is a physical game: it’s at the puck, it’s around the puck, it’s one on one and it’s very demanding. He’s not going to be a 48, 49-second hockey player, not and be effective. He’s a guy that has to play in short bursts and that’s what he does. He plays great in short bursts so his energy stays high.”
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