St. Louis Blues: Vladimir Tarasenko Is Like Cristiano Ronaldo Right Now And That’s Not Good

The St. Louis Blues have a bonafide star on their roster. He is currently playing like Cristiano Ronaldo, but that’s not as good as it would seem on the surface of the comparison.

For those of you who do not follow European football, aka soccer, Cristiano Ronaldo is widely considered among the best (some think he is the best) players in the world. He is definitely top five.

While Vladimir Tarasenko doesn’t rank that high in the NHL yet, the players are comparable.

Both are deceptively strong. Both have great workout regimens. Both have speed, incredible skill on the puck/ball and a knack for scoring goals that most players could only dream of.

Unfortunately for St. Louis Blues fans, they apparently have another thing in common at the moment that is less endearing. When things do not go their way, they completely disappear.

Ronaldo is, without a doubt, one of the best players in the world. You can’t take that away from him, whether you like the man or not. However, he has a habit of disappearing when things are not going his way.

You see it more in soccer than hockey, but he is the posterchild for players that want things their way or they take their ball and go home. Some might say that’s an opinion, but it’s a widely held one.

Despite the fact that he’s one of the most talented players in the world, he hasn’t shown a consistent ability to do so when it matters the most.  He scores a lot of goals against so-called bottom feeders when the result is already decided, but not as many against the top teams in important matches.  Some of that is a generalization, of course, but for the most part is has been a pattern.

That’s where Tarasenko comes in.  He is now falling into that same category, especially in today’s what have you done for me lately society.

Tarasenko has zero points in five games against the San Jose Sharks.  Compare that to four goals against Chicago, seven points against Dallas and a total of 13 points in those two rounds.

Even as good as those point totals are, none of his goals ended up being game winners.  Additionally, he’s a minus player defensively and is currently -5 for the playoffs, which is a pretty high number considering he’s been on the ice for at least 13 goals for the Blues.

The comparison is particularly apt right now for the Sharks series.  Not only does Ronaldo fail to score, but the way he looks while playing is not good either.  He has bad body language, he pouts, he doesn’t give a full effort, he doesn’t get to areas that would give him an opportunity if he put in the work and he blames teammates for all his woes.

Tarasenko is in that boat as well.  He hasn’t yelled at his teammates (there were rumors of him doing so on the bench in Game 5, but no evidence), but the rest has all been there.

Tarasenko just doesn’t look himself right now.  He won’t shoot the puck and when he does there is no zip behind it.

He has terrible body language.  He is slumped much of the time between plays and looks tired a lot.  He doesn’t look confident.  He doesn’t battle for pucks that he did in the regular season.

That’s a big reason he’s a minus player right now.  Many of the pucks he’s given up on have led to charges down the other way.  While you can’t put him at fault directly for every goal, it makes you wonder what might have happened if he put in the work and won some of those.

Being tired is somewhat understandable as he’s never played this many games before.  Still, it’s not an excuse when players older than him and players with less experience than him are putting up numbers and putting in the effort – see Troy Brouwer and Robby Fabbri.

The thing that is worrisome is nobody has an answer.  Fans are left to wonder.  There have been rumors of illness and him having his own personal water bottle.  There have been whispers of injury that could be anything from a shoulder way back against Chicago to the more recent issue of being punched in the ribs by Brent Burns.

The problem is we don’t know. Visually, it doesn’t appear he is fighting through anything. It just looks like he’s not invested at times, which isn’t sitting well with the fans.

In typical Blues fashion, what we see and what is said are two totally different things. “You can’t score every game,” said Tarasenko. “So, at the same time, you need to help your team. You can be a factor. That’s what I try to do.”

The problem is, he hasn’t done that against the Sharks. He hasn’t scored and he hasn’t been a factor. He hasn’t been a decoy to create space for others, he hasn’t set up teammates to score and he isn’t even really testing the goaltender. That’s all very Ronaldo-like when Ronaldo is not up to snuff.

Now credit is due to the Sharks. Clearly, as evidenced by the video above, they are manhandling Tarasenko. Some of it has been a bit underhanded, but much of it is legal and he just hasn’t been able to deal with it.

Additionally, we don’t know how much Tarasenko pays attention. We can go on about how he’s a pro athlete and has to overcome etc, but if he’s aware of how much he’s being bagged on right now, that can’t help his confidence.

On local radio, the text-in portion of the afternoon show was nothing but anti-Tarasenko messages. They ranged from comical to much worse. Some said sit him. Some said they replaced his jock-strap with a skirt (their words, not mine).

Type “Tarasenko” into the search bar on Twitter. When I did, the top five listings were all articles wondering where Tarasenko has gone, how much pressure he has and how he has to step up.

He is a human being after all.  If he’s reading or hearing any of this, it’s going to affect him.  It would be hard not to.  Add into that, he’s still fairly new to this country and the pressures that come with being a star and it’s all a bad mixture.

Now in fairness, he’s not Ronaldo in all his negative features.  Tarasenko wants to win.  “It’s that time of year when you trade your goals to reach a goal and win a Cup,” continued Tarasenko. Ronaldo wants personal fame and personal accolades.

Tarasenko does his best to help his teammates at his own expense sometimes.  Ronaldo gets upset when someone else scores and he thinks the goal could have been his.

Nevertheless, the comparison is still there in some form.

Ronaldo has a history of not showing up when it counted most.  Tarasenko scored earlier in the playoffs, but hasn’t had that defining goal yet and now has absolutely nothing in the third round.

The Blues have to have their best player do something.  They’ve managed to get this far without him, but if he could actually break through then the Sharks can’t just expect they have him bottled up.

Next: Minor Adjustments Could Mean Major Results For Blues

There is still time, but it is growing ever short.  The sand in the hour-glass is almost done on this series and that goose-egg is looming larger.

All it takes is one and then they come in bunches.  That is definitely true for Ronaldo.  Blues fans are hoping it will be true for Tarasenko and then the comparison will not be just in the negative light.