St. Louis Blues: Vladimir Tarasenko Better Be Stretching Out

The St. Louis Blues have quite the investment in their star scoring forward. While everyone is trying to pass the quarantine as best they can, fans are hoping that said player is more limber than he looks.

The St. Louis Blues and their fans are still holding out hope that some sort of finish can happen to cap off the 2019-20 season. Clearly Blues fans are hoping to be the first repeat champions since the the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016 and 2017 and only the third team to do that since 1998.

To accomplish such a feat, assuming public health and a scenario where games can be played, the Blues will need all hands on deck. Regardless of what a player did in the regular season, they need everyone.

That includes Vladimir Tarasenko. Tarasenko had a very good playoffs in 2019.

They would need him to equal that, if not surpass it, to give them a shot at another title. That’s assuming he’s healthy and ready to go.

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While everyone is trying to pass the quarantine time as best they can, some are doing it in stranger ways than others. One player, not on the Blues, was spotted doing stickhandling drills on a hoverboard of all things.

NHL players have fantastic core strength and balance. That’s still an accident waiting to happen, especially doing it near the dining room table that has sharp corners.

However, just as worrying is Tarasenko’s new hobby. He slapped on some goalie equipment and was taking shots from one of his children.

Tarasenko better be doing some serious stretching if he’s going to be playing in goal. Can you imagine the typical Blues’ type luck for their star forward to pull a muscle while playing goaltender for his kids? If the team had not already won a championship, you could not get much more Blues than that.

Don’t these players have strict clauses in their contracts forbidding such foolishness? The Blues need to be getting Tarasenko on the phone or facetime or whatever pronto and shutting that stuff down.

Of course, if you’ve made it this far, hopefully you realize this is only a joke before you engulf the comment section in flames. All tongue-in-cheek.

The truth is that when the video was first viewed, I did notice that Tarasenko does not look as limber as one should to be playing goal. That said, he was just having fun with his kids and the reality is that hundreds, if not thousands, of men and women across North America play street hockey in goal and never pull anything. So, unless he’s going all out and regularly trying the splits, he’s in no real danger.

If nothing else, those squats he was doing show he was good and warmed up. If you’ve tried doing those kinds of movements in hockey pads, you’ll know it doesn’t take much to get the blood moving.

Let’s hope we get real hockey back soon and don’t have to see Tarasenko in goalie pads other than the summer months in the offseason. Until then, keep that groin stretched Vlady.