How Vladimir Tarasenko answered the bell for St. Louis and met a challenge on Tuesday night
My dad and I tried a tested trick during Game 5.
My dad and I started a game back when I was a teenager. Watching the St. Louis Cardinals play, we would pick a struggling player and just lay it on. Nothing mean, just playful jabs designed to spark performance. Adults do their best work when they’re driven and/or a little angry.
“He can’t hit. If he tried to field the ball, it would deny entry to his glove.”
“His talent couldn’t get through security.”
“They make his lumber out of Styrofoam!”
“Did he sign up to play badminton?”
But suddenly, the player would respond and collect a hit. He’d do it again the next time, and then go on a big streak. We took some credit, but laughed at the notion that our useless heckling and bickering could actually produce results. Who needed a hitting coach when a couple armchair managers were already on the payroll?
Edgar Renteria was a common target back in the day (which was a Tuesday by the way). He had a smooth, easygoing approach to the game that looked like someone crocheting during a live sporting event. For my hustle and bustle father, that wasn’t enough in-between pitch movement. Renteria would scoop up the ball and fire over to first with ease, or run out a grounder with medium speed. If he was 0-15 or 2-21, we were all over him.
Tuesday night, I tried the same tactic with Vladimir Tarasenko. The Blues winger had a goal and two points in the first four games of the playoff series with Minnesota, but he had been mostly held in check except for one good game. As the Wild overcame a 1-0 deficit to lead 2-1 in the second period, I tweeted about the need for Tarasenko to step up. St. Louis needed him. The Blues needed him. Eichelberger and January needed him!!
Before the third period could become three minutes old, he scored two goals. The bell was rang and he answered. The deficit was now an advantage, right after two deafening shots from #91. Classic goals from the veteran winger too. If he can get to the right dot and that wicked wrist shot crosses through a little traffic in between, Tarasenko can be deadly.
Goal #2 and his third of the series was a missile from the dot, giving the team a 4-2 lead, one he would later pad and seal with an empty netter for the hat trick. It was Tarasenko’s second career playoff hat trick, and a redemption song for all the Blues fans asking for him to please rise up. It wasn’t just me.
He had been getting pinned and guarded closely all night and well by Minnesota, unable to find the proper distance to unleash that wicked shot. Once Tarasenko located that separation, Marc Andre-Fleury had no chance. The great ones find a way to get the job done against all odds.
The three goal tally gave Tarasenko 38 total for the 2021-22 regular season and playoffs combined. He sits one goal shy of 40 for his playoff career total, something he can address tomorrow night at the Enterprise Center.
For my dad and I, it’s another case of using a little old fashioned, and good natured, heckling. The method barely ever works, for the record. It’s not like we are Nostradamus each game and get to use this power every game or night. The Minnesota series would be over already, and the Cards wouldn’t have a shortstop problem. That would be exhausting and less magical though. The coolness would dim and the repetitive nature of interfering with sports events would be taxing.
If we weren’t careful, the sports multiverse could burst open with too much meddling.
Whether it’s a Cards shortstop doing his job or a Blues winger finding the sweet spot of the stick in order to send a puck on a happy flight to net town, cheering on and rooting for your team comes in many forms. If you’re able to watch sports with your parents and make it more fun, pull the trigger and get goofy. Maybe, in the end, your team will win too.
Now, can Renteria still play shortstop? That’s the question.
I do remember the strategic bashing of Renteria. He did seem to respond to it. I remember trying that same tactic with Tino Martinez with much less success.
Tarasenko came up big last night and is fully deserving of the praise he is receiving today. I think some of us fans have never truly accepted that he’s merely a very good (and occasionally great) player. Kaprizov is a great (and occasionally elite) player. It’s a mistake to try to compare them. This is a repeat of the faulty comparison made in the past when Panerin was with the Hawks. Every Russian star does not need to be compared with every other Russian star.
#91 is a very good player and a key part of a balanced attack. Let’s accept him for what he is; the Blues are lucky to have him.