The St. Louis Blues got some unfortunate injury news on Tuesday as it was revealed that Vladamir Tarasenko is leaving the bubble and returning to St. Louis for further evaluation on his surgically repaired shoulder. The assumption is that this decision will leave him out of the rest of the series against the Vancouver Canucks.
Tarasenko, who had been sidelined since October after undergoing shoulder surgery, returned to join the Blues during the round robin, but has missed the Blues’ past two games.
Tarasenko is without a point in four games and his injury has certainly affected his play. With three goals and 10 points in 10 games during the regular season, that he’s been held scoreless through the postseason likely left the 28-year-old with no doubt that he needed to have things looked at.
Head coach Craig Berube said of the Tarasenko news: “I’m not going to jump to conclusions on anything. He’s not feeling right, so that’s why he’s going to get it looked at. It is concerning, but we’ve got to wait and see.” He added:
“When you get something done like that and you’re out nine months, you’re going to have some issues when you come back no matter what… We’ll see what shows up here and we can go from there.”
Some Good News For Blues
Berube says Ivan Barbashev has been “cleared” and will skate today. The Blues have stormed back and are now tied 2-2 with the Canucks in their best-of-seven series.
As for how the team will respond, “We’re a team. We play without players at times, because you have to,” Berube said. He added, “Our team is what makes us a good team. We rely on each other. Different people can come in and do the job.”