The St. Louis Blues announced that forward Vladimir Tarasenko is heading back to St. Louis to visit with team doctors to look at his surgically repaired shoulder. According to the team, he will be out for the remainder of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Vladimir Tarasenko will return to St. Louis to meet with team doctors regarding his surgically-repaired shoulder. https://t.co/FZyErVX4yB #stlblues
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) August 18, 2020
Vladimir Tarasenko Heads Back To St. Louis
After the Blues fell down 2-0 to the Vancouver Canucks in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, head coach Craig Berube made some lineup changes. One of which saw Tarasenko out of the lineup. At the time nobody knew exactly the reason other than his team was looking for a spark.
Now that the series is tied at 2-2, after a Blues victory in Game 4, the news comes out that Tarasenko is heading back to St. Louis. In a press release on Tuesday general manager, Doug Armstrong said there will be an update of Tarasenko’s status as of next Monday. However, these are not the only games he has missed since the NHL has returned. Tarasenko also missed a round-robin game before the playoffs started.
Tarasenko originally injured his shoulder back on October 24, 2019, after being tangled up with Sean Walker of the Los Angeles Kings. He missed 61 games after undergoing shoulder surgery before returning to the Blues lineup for their exhibition games on July 29 against the Chicago Blackhawks. Prior to getting injured Tarasenko had recorded 10 points (three goals and seven assists) in 10 regular-season games. He had yet to record a point in four games this postseason.
Going Forward
The Blues have been in this position before. They played most of the regular season without him. Having Tarasenko back in their lineup was a huge boost because they thought he was gone for the rest of the season if not the first couple rounds of the playoffs. However, with Tarasenko out of the lineup, Berube did some line juggling to get his team going. Berube moved David Perron into Tarasenko’s spot on the top line with Ryan O’Reilly and Jaden Schwartz. In addition, Oskar Sundqvist also moved into the top six.
The news was not all bad for the Blues as Ivan Barbashev has returned to the ice for the Blues. He was cleared to return to play and was skating on his own in St. Louis before joining the team in the Edmonton bubble. This is a huge boost for the Blues who like to play a heavy style of hockey. Barbashev was a key to the Blues success last season.
The Blues have done fine without Tarasenko in the lineup but it is always tough to see a player like that get injured.
Main Photo:
Embed from Getty Images
