Blues' Tarasenko quietly becoming one of the flashiest players in NHL
ST. LOUIS -- The Blues' sensational young forward keeps making his case as one of the NHL's top attractions.
Vladimir Tarasenko hasn't just scored eight goals in his last six games, a remarkable feat by any measure. He's done it with a unique style and flair while leading the Blues on an NHL-best seven-game win streak to move them from fifth to first in the Central Division.
"He doesn't want to show himself," says St. Louis center Jori Lehtera, Tarasenko's former teammate at Sibir Novosibirsk in Russia's KHL. "He just wants to be quiet and score his goals. Well, of course he likes (the attention) in a secret way, but he doesn't like to make big noise of himself."
That's only going to get tougher for the humble 22-year-old after another goal to open the scoring and an assist to lift the Blues to a 4-3 victory over New Jersey on Thursday night at the Scottrade Center. As usual, he had little to say following the game, other than praising his teammates and emphasizing the importance of wins over his own points.
Blues coach Ken Hitchcock may be more uneasy about the situation than Tarasenko himself, an understandable reaction from a coach who has consistently preached the importance of maintaining structure on a team without superstars. That may no longer be the case if this keeps up, even though Hitchcock says he isn't surprised by anything he's seen from Tarasenko.
"I just don't want to see it take away from the rest of the group, and he's not going to allow it," Hitchcock says. "He's going to defer all the time. If he has points and the team doesn't win, he's the most unhappy guy in the locker room."
But that scenario hasn't happened since he assisted on a goal in a season-opening loss to the New York Rangers, even though Tarasenko leads the team with nine goals and 14 points. Part of that has been the remarkably good timing of nearly all of his goals, all but two of which have either tied the game or given St. Louis the lead.
Nearly every conversation about Tarasenko's goal-scoring ability starts with his shot, a lightning-fast natural wrist movement perfected through hours and hours of practice. It makes him dangerous from almost anywhere in the O-zone, as he showed on game-winners at Dallas and New Jersey.
That's far from the only way he can score, though, as he demonstrated Monday with possibly the NHL's goal of the year in a 4-3 shootout win over the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. More than 16,500 fans at the Scottrade Center got to witness Tarasenko's latest bit of magic, which Lehtera later aptly called "a sick goal."
It looked like Tarasenko's efforts would come up empty after he hit the post with a shot late in the first period, but fellow 22-year-old forward Jaden Schwartz kept the play alive by forcing a turnover in the O-zone. A quick pass to Tarasenko set him up to weave through three defenders and fly around helpless Devils goaltender Cory Schneider before waiting until the last moment to calmly deposit the puck into the net with less than five seconds on the clock.
"He's got some magic hands," says Blues goaltender Jake Allen, who has the unenviable task of trying to stop Tarasenko on a regular basis in practice. "He keeps his blade very square. He's very honest, so if you cheat at all you're going to get burned."
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The addition of Schwartz to his line adds another serious offensive threat, and Tarasenko says they have good chemistry from plenty of shared ice time the past two seasons. Schwartz scored his sixth goal of the year on a breakaway thanks to a disastrous shift by the Devils, and he's noticed teams paying more attention to Tarasenko during the recent hot streak.
No other Blues player has been more instrumental to Tarasenko's success than Lehtera, who says he never needs to encourage his friend to shoot. Like everyone else, the center knows to get Tarasenko the puck whenever possible, and their chemistry on the ice has been obvious.
"(Lehtera)'s someone who knows him really well and they just seem to have this chemistry that you can't really find," says Shattenkirk, who has assisted four of Tarasenko's goals. "You can't really create it. You just kind of find it and hope it's there."
It may not even matter who joins the dynamic duo on the forward line that got its first start against New Jersey, especially with the increased depth St. Louis has this season. Lehtera says Tarasenko keeps getting better every game, a scary thought for the rest of the league.
He may not be getting any more relaxed around the cameras, but Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk says Tarasenko seems to be taking more risks on the ice and no longer keeping anything in his bag of tricks. He's averaging more than four shots per game compared to barely two a year ago, and he's quickly becoming one of the team's most beloved players.
"He's a great guy," Shattenkirk says. "He's extremely funny. He's extremely positive, great sense of humor and he's good for our locker room in that sense."
You can follow Luke Thompson on Twitter @FS_LukeT or email him at lukegthompson87@gmail.com.
