St. Louis Blues 2017-18 Final Report Card: Vladimir Tarasenko

The St. Louis Blues and Vladimir Tarasenko had expectations through the roof for 2017-18. His season was fine, but it fell far short of what anyone involved wanted.

The St. Louis Blues and Vladimir Tarasenko reached somewhat of an impasse in 2017-18. Expectations of the player were through the roof. What we ended up with was far from those lofty heights.

Part of the problem was Tarasenko himself. Prior to the season, Tarasenko had set a personal goal to get to 50 goals. The talent is definitely in there, but the execution was not and the Blues top star had a down season.

The issue here is how to grade Tarasenko. Based on past seasons, this year was a complete letdown. Overall, his numbers were good though. So that middle ground is right about where we have to work from.

Final Grade: B

You can argue about C+, B- or B+. It’s all semantics when it comes to Tarasenko.

The bottom line is that he had a fine year. It just happened in a season where fine was not good enough for Tarasenko or the Blues.

St. Louis needed him to step forward into the bright lights and actually hit that 50 goal mark, or at least come close. 33 goals is a decent number, but not what you would expect from a player that aspires to be among the league’s best.

Tarasenko is humble in public and would tell you that winning is more important than goals. That might be true, but what Tarasenko fails to realize is that this team is currently built to win when he is scoring. They need his goals, not just his presence on the ice.

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The extremely disappointing part of Tarasenko’s season was his regression under Mike Yeo. There are lots of reasons to be against Yeo, but we’d all rather he succeed than not if that means the team is doing well. The biggest reasons to doubt Yeo, though, are the special teams – which involve 91 heavily – and Tarasenko’s drop off.

For all the bickering back and forth and the perceived slights against the player, Ken Hitchcock drove Tarasenko to his best. He forced the budding star out of his comfort zone and got the best out of him.

Yeo took a different approach and even said late in the season that you can’t really force players to do what they don’t want to do. It seems that is exactly what good coaches do do, but that’s another argument.

The bottom line was Tarasenko was allowed to somewhat roam freely and it ended up not benefiting the team or the player. While I disagree with his public statement on the matter, it is hard to disagree with Brayden Schenn that it is hard to play with a player if you have no feel for where they are on the ice.

The Blues use of Tarasenko on the power play was quite awful on most occasions. Too often he was allowed to roam toward the blue line instead of staying in impact shooting areas. This led to the lowest total for power play goals since Tarasenko’s first full season. Six goals was still second on the team, but that showcases how bad the entire unit was.

Tarasenko took an all-time high in shots and shots attempted. His shooting percentage was the worst it had been since his “rookie” season when he played 38 games.

Now, it should not be said that his season was completely bad or the grade would be lower. Some of the negatives are coaching and scheme and some fall directly on the player.

Tarasenko’s possession metrics went up in all three categories – Corsi, Fenwick and PDO. His zone start percentages all improved. His defensive point shares went up and he set a career best for hits and blocked shots.

Those numbers are surprising since Yeo was forcing Tarasenko to play less of a 200 foot game and thus less defensive responsibility. Nevertheless, the numbers do not lie.

However, it can’t be denied that there was a lack of interest in getting back to help when mistakes were made. Over the years I have learned that effort for the sake of effort is often a fan created problem. Still, there were plays where Tarasenko could have gotten back to help, did not, and the man he would have taken ended up contributing to a goal against.

So, we are left with the larger problem with the Blues’ star. He has the talent and is still the team’s best pure scorer. There are strong arguments to be made that he is no longer the team’s best player though.

30-plus goals is fine, but not when you expect 40 or more. 60-plus points is great, but not when you’re capable of putting up 75-80.

The issue is production vs. expectation and Tarasenko got our expectations too high with his play and his words. Overall, like the team itself, 2017-18 was a down year but hopefully a blip.

Next: Two Future Blues Learn To Win Titles Early

A B-type of effort was ok, but not good enough to get the Blues or Tarasenko where they need to go. He has to learn to push himself because the current staff doesn’t seem willing to do it.

If he can realize that him scoring is the best recipe for the Blues to win, he’ll be the better for it. If he continues down the modest path with the entire winning is more important than stats, which is true overall, then B’s are likely all we will ever get.

Again, B’s are fine, but not from a guy you expect to be A+.

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