Rangers’ Scherzer undergoes surgery for herniated disk

Avalanche send Tatar to Kraken for fifth-round pick

The Tomar Tatar experiment is over in Colorado.

After signing the veteran forward to a one-year deal in September, the Avalanche sent Tatar to the Seattle Kraken for a 2024 fifthround pick, the team announced Friday night.

The 33-year-old Slovakian wing appeared in 27 games for Colorado this season, compiling nine points total, although just one of those was a goal. It was a far cry from his production with the New Jersey Devils (20 goals and 28 assists) last season, and not on par with his regular-season output in the first 12 seasons of his career when he scored 20 goals seven times.

Tatar began the season on the Avs’ third line, and was shuffled around the lineup. One of his best games came playing next to Nathan Mackinnon on the top line, but that assignment was brief. He’s been a healthy scratch twice, and his average time on ice (11:17) this season is more than three minutes per contest lower than any of his previous 10 full seasons in the NHL.

He found some success as a playmaker, and there was some bad luck involved with only scoring one time in 27 games — which came Monday night against Calgary. The biggest issue with his offensive production was the lack of shots on goal. Tatar had just 19, which is 15 fewer than anyone who’s had regular ice time with one of the top three lines.

Colorado added Tatar late in the offseason process. He was a lowcost, low-risk depth addition with a $1.5 million cap hit. He had tried to secure a more lucrative deal earlier in the summer, but relatively little movement with the salary cap ceiling over the past few years has led to some players getting forced to taking “show me” contracts.

— Denver Post

Former Avalanche left wing Tomas Tatar against the Wild in a preseason game on Sept. 24 in Denver.

Max Scherzer had surgery for a herniated disk in his lower back and will miss a significant portion of next season.

The 39-year-old right-hander, a three-time Cy Young Award winner, had surgery Thursday after injections and other less-invasive treatments didn’t relieve the pain. He is due $43,333,334 in the final season of a $130 million, three-year contract he signed with the New York Mets.

Scherzer, who was removed from the roster during the World Series because of back discomfort, had surgery Thursday, general manager Chris Young said Friday. Young said the team is hopeful Scherzer will be fully healed and recovered by June or July.

Scherzer was limited to 23 starts in 2022 by a left oblique injury and 27 starts this year by neck spasms and a right teres muscle strain.

Austrians dominate World Cup Super G event in Italy

Former world champion Vincent Kriechmayr led a strong Austrian showing to win a high-speed superg in Val Gardena on Friday.

For his 17th career World Cup win — split almost evenly between downhill (9) and super-g (8) — Kriechmayr finished a narrow 0.02 seconds ahead of teammate Daniel Hemetsberger.

Marco Odermatt, who dominated the super-g discipline last season, placed third, 0.03 back. The twotime defending overall World Cup winner was visibly upset, screaming at himself in the finish.

The course, set by a French coach, was relatively straight. That meant that racers could accelerate to more than 110 kph (68 mph) — not far off the speeds of the downhill on the Saslong course. Conditions were virtually perfect.

Marco Schwarz finished fifth as Austrians took three of the top five