SAN JOSE, Calif. – If you did not see Saturday’s opening game of the Western Conference final, you could gauge San Jose Sharks defenceman Marc-Edouard Vlasic’s effectiveness by St. Louis Blues coach Craig Berube’s press scrum on Sunday morning.
Berube was getting a lot of questions about Vladimir Tarasenko. The winger plays for the Blues, although it was hard to tell by watching the Sharks’ 6-3 victory.
In fairness to all parties, Mike Yeo was the Blues’ coach two years ago fielding Tarasenko questions as the immensely talented Russian scored just three goals and three assists in 11 playoff games. And the season before that, Ken Hitchcock was in charge of St. Louis and had to try explaining Tarasenko’s disappearance in the conference final against these same Sharks.
San Jose advanced to the Stanley Cup Final in six games, and Tarasenko was pointless in the first five playing largely against Vlasic.
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So, this what’s-wrong-with-Tarasenko theme is not new for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Going back to that 2016 elimination by the Sharks, the 27-year-old has 10 goals and 14 points in 31 playoff games.
“I don’t know about the Vlasic thing because I wasn’t here,” Berube said of 2016. “But, yeah, Vlady’s got to work without the puck a lot harder. And he will. He’s got to get more involved. He can’t just wait for things to happen, especially in the playoffs. You’ve got to go get it, got to go make it yourself. It’s about working, and it’s about working with your line. I’ll stress it again: we need three guys around the puck.”
Berube said he wasn’t focusing on one player, but some in the media were because Tarasenko is hard to overlook. He registered one shot on target Saturday, collected a second assist and was minus-3 playing alongside Jaden Schwartz and Brayden Schenn. At 5-on-5, the Blues were outshot 6-3 with Tarasenko on the ice. And his time on ice of 17:10 was his lowest in 14 playoff games this spring.
He was not made available to the media on Sunday’s off-day for the Blues.
Tarasenko has five goals and one assist in the playoffs, and just one goal and two points in the last seven games. He has one even-strength goal in 14 games, and is a team-worst minus-8. But the Blues are generating 55.2 per cent of shot attempts when Tarasenko is on the ice.
“We definitely need him to do more offensively, for sure,” Berube said upon cross-examination. “Create more opportunities for scoring. But it’s not just him. We need our top line, our top guys, to create chances and get chances and produce. That’s the way the game is in the league. He definitely has to do more. Along with other guys.”
What Berube says to Tarasenko is far more important than what he says about him to the press. But unless the coach finds a way to coax more from his best player than Hitchcock or Yeo did, it’s hard to see the Blues winning this series.
“Sometimes top players get shut down,” St. Louis forward Pat Maroon said. “That’s part of the game. (Tarasenko) is a valuable player for this team and he’s an elite player for a reason. We’re not too worried about it.”
Often, those top players get shut down by Vlasic, who has built his 13-season career playing against the best forwards in the world. On a San Jose team loaded with gunslingers, Vlasic is the shield – the ever-dependable defenceman who disarms the opposition.
If the NHL actually had a major award for its best defensive defenceman, the 32-year-old would probably have a few of them by now.
“In the NHL, you want to play against the best players to make yourself better,” Vlasic said Sunday after the Sharks’ practice. “But it’s not one player (you’re defending). Schwartz has 10 goals in the playoffs. He’s leading the way in goals, so you have to shut him down just as much as Tarasenko. But I like it. I like the opportunity to play against the best. I enjoy it.”
Paired with 34-year-old Brent Burns – the blue-line partners have combined for 2,234 NHL games, including playoffs – Vlasic was bruised in the first round by the Vegas Golden Knights’ line of Mark Stone, Max Pacioretty and Paul Stastny, who combined for 31 points in the Sharks’ controversial seven-game win.
But Vlasic was injured for two of those games and most of a third, and in the four full games he played the Sharks were 4-0.
In the second round, Vlasic and Burns helped limit the Colorado Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog to six goals in seven games. MacKinnon was pointless in the final three games.
“If me and Burnsy can limit the top players on the other side, it gives us a better chance of coming out on top,” Vlasic said. “But if you do it in Game 1, you’ve got to do it all over again in Game 2. If you give them just a little bit of momentum, they’ll create chances and feel confident about their game going into the next one.
“You’re at the final four and you’ve got to realize this doesn’t happen very often. You better take advantage of the opportunity.”
Presumably, Tarasenko is aware of this.
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