The Blue Jackets have made one piece of their goaltending equation obvious

We have had plenty of time to critique the goaltending situation in Columbus this season. It's the unfortunate truth of this year's Blue Jackets: with even a middle of the pack puck stopper, the Blue Jackets would probably be comfortably in a playoff spot right now.

The thing is, they just have not gotten any consistency in that position. Elvis Merzlikins runs extremely hot and cold; but even when he's hot, he's prone to the odd bad goal against. Jet Greaves has arguably (or not arguably) given the team its most reliable goaltending, and he's third on the depth chart.

That's not good for the guys above him, with his contract becoming a one-way deal after this season. Merzlikins' contract states that he may be safe, assuming the team doesn't go out and find another veteran to share the crease with Greaves. But when it comes to Daniil Tarasov, the writing is all over the wall.

The leash is gone.

Tarasov has gotten into 20 games for the Blue Jackets this season - all but one of them being starts. And, through the first three months of the season, he proved himself basically unplayable. Blame it on poor usage if you want. Whether it was a lack of starts; or simply being thrown out in tough matchups like the second half of a back to back; things just weren't going well for him early this year.

When you aren't playing much, the only way to earn more starts is to go out and steal the job. Unfortunately for Daniil, when he got his chances, he did the opposite; giving the team more reasons not to play him as opposed to pushing Merzlikins for a greater share of the workload.

His season was somewhat salvaged by accepting a reassignment to the Cleveland Monsters in January, where he got into a couple of quick games before coming back to Columbus re-energized. His first handful of games after the conditioning assignment went pretty well, restoring some faith with the organization and the fanbase.

Then came March. More specifically, the mid-March slump that the entire Jackets team went through, which carried into early April. Between March 15th and April 6th, Tarasov was given 3 starts by head coach Dean Evason. The Jackets went 0-3-0 in those games, with Daniil surrendering 8 goals on just 53 shots, a save percentage of .855%.

In his last start - April 6th against the Ottawa Senators - Tarasov was pulled after surrendering two goals on six shots, just 4:26 into the game. While it's tough to fault him individually the early deficit, it's hard to ignore the fact that the Jackets needed him to make saves, and he wasn't getting it done. The first one, in particular, was not a good one to give up:

Yes, the Blue Jackets gave up the blue line too easily on that play. And yes, Erik Gudbranson backs off too far into the defensive zone. But, an NHL goaltender has to make that save, whether they've played recently or not. After giving up another goal just over a minute later, Tarasov's night was finished.

Recent start has the writing on the wall.

Last night, we learned a lot about this team's offseason plans, without being told specifically what they are. Jet Greaves was recalled from the Cleveland Monsters yesterday due to an undisclosed injury to Elvis Merzlikins. When the Jackets took the ice last night, it was Greaves - not Tarasov - who led them out for the start

This was in spite of the fact that Greaves had played an AHL game less than 24 hours prior. One that went to overtime, no less. Evason and his staff felt more comfortable starting an AHL guy in a back-to-back situation; than they did giving the crease to Tarasov in a meaningful game.

Evason's lack of confidence in Tarasov, coupled with Don Waddell's comments about overhauling his goaltending this summer, makes it pretty obvious: despite being a restricted free agent, Tarry doesn't fit into this team's plans beyond this season.

That doesn't mean he's a bad guy, or that his ability won't help him land on his feet elsewhere. But, it's hard to ignore the fact that the #3 guy in the organization not only started in the back-to-back situation; he performed very well and helped this team win a game.

Winning a game is something Tarasov has not done in more than a month. It seems the Blue Jackets and their long anticipated future starter are heading for a divorce this summer.