Duhatschek: From Russia with ritual, Tarasenko keeps tearing up the NHL

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Hockey players are mostly creatures of habit, and the St. Louis Blues' Vladimir Tarasenko, of the faraway Russian city of Yaroslavl, is no exception. Immediately after every Blues game or first thing the next morning, Tarasenko gets on his cellphone or tablet to speak to his father or grandfather and analyze what happened in the game.

The Tarasenkos are a hockey-playing family, with papa Andrei a three-time Russian league scoring champ. In the years his father coached in Russia's Superleague, Vladimir lived in his grandfather's home. The three are close, and Vladimir relies on both as daily sounding boards, two people he trusts for feedback, good and bad.

"Technology makes it possible," Tarasenko explained in a lengthy interview before the opening of the playoffs. "You can call right now from everywhere and see their faces. I started to play in the KHL when I was 16 [for Sibir Novosibirsk] and we talked every day when I went to play St. Petersburg for a couple of years. No reason to change anything now."

Tarasenko is one of the brightest stars in the NHL galaxy and was a staple on sports-highlight reels all season. Despite missing five games down the stretch to injury, Tarasenko finished tied for fifth in the NHL goal-scoring race with 37 and 10th in points with 73.

With the Blues set to open their first-round series with the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night, Tarasenko gives the team a dimension they've lacked since they became a legitimate Stanley Cup contender – that of a game-breaking forward.

"It's nice – he's a good weapon to have in our back pocket," Blues defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk said. "You saw a little bit of it last year in the Chicago series. He had a bum thumb but still he had the ability to come up with some big goals for us. That's part of the maturity of a young player.

"It seems like in your third year, you figure out how to play this game. We're going to need him in the playoffs to come up big for us, in the third period, in the crucial minutes, when we need a goal to tie it up or win it. I think he has the confidence and the ability to do that."

Tarasenko arrived in the NHL following the 2012-13 lockout, after playing the first half of the season with Ilya Kovalchuk in Russia. Right away, the Blues were impressed with how willing Tarasenko was to integrate into the team and how good his English-language skills were. Tarasenko said he took English classes in high school and also made two short trips to England as an exchange student when he was 12 or 13, which helped smooth the transition.

"When I came here first three years ago, I can understand everything, but I couldn't talk," he said. "Right now, it's pretty easy. I'm the only Russian guy on the team. If we would have somebody from Russia, it would have been harder for me because I would have no reason to talk to someone else. If I had some problems, I could ask the Russian guy. Here, I was roommates with Shattenkirk. He helped me a lot."

According to Shattenkirk, it was a provision of the new collective agreement that serendipitously put the two of them together.

"Alex [Pietrangelo] and I were the last two guys on the team on rookie contracts when Vlady came in," Shattenkirk explained. "The rule in the new CBA was once your rookie contract was done, you get your own room. Alex and I were going to split the year with Vlady, going on and off, but I said, 'I'm fine with rooming with him.'

"He was very shy around the guys at first. His English was actually a lot better than he thought, but he wasn't confident with it. We would sit in the room and talk and have great conversations. It's one reason we've become such great friends now."

Last summer, the Blues signed Jori Lehtera, Tarasenko's former KHL linemate, as a free agent, and the two have been effective pair in the NHL as well. Jaden Schwartz, a former Canadian world junior star, was the third member of the line for much of the season, but going into the playoffs, they've put Alex Steen there.

The Blues drafted Schwartz with the 14th overall pick in the 2010 entry draft and then traded the rights to David Rundblad to the Ottawa Senators for the 16th overall pick, which they used to select Tarasenko. Some scouts believe Tarasenko would have been a top-five pick if there hadn't been concerns about his willingness to play in the NHL, but he says there was never a question about it in his own mind.

"It was my dream growing up to play here," he said. "That was what my father and grandfather told me all the time – that if you want that, you're going to need to work, work, work. There were ups and downs in my first three years, too. I was a healthy scratch in my first playoffs my first year, so it wasn't always easy. Right now, I'm here. I like our team and I like how things are going."

Tarasenko says his father's coaching is one of the reasons he is able to make the plays he does.

"A coach can teach you to play a tactical game or a coach can teach you to score goals," Tarasenko said. "My father taught me how to score goals."

"His mannerisms and how he comes to the rink every day and treats the game, you can tell it's been instilled in him through his father and grandfather," Shattenkirk added. "They've obviously guided him along. I also think playing pro at a young age also gets you ready for this game and lifestyle."

Russian players have a reputation for being mostly a dour lot, but Tarasenko seems to be an exception to the rule.

"The common perception of the Russians is they're always angry; we joke about that sometimes," Shattenkirk said. "He'll use the example of, 'If I get on the elevator, why do I have to say hi to someone?' We don't do that in our culture.

"He has this boyish behaviour to him, similar to [Alex] Ovechkin. When you see him score, you see how excited he is and how happy that makes him. Vlady is another one of those guys. It's great because we really feed off that energy and positivity."