Video: Tarasenko’s Magical Shootout Goal
January 21st, 2012 | by David Rogers |Tarasenko’s Magical Shootout Goal
Vladimir Tarasenko put on a bit of a magic show during the KHL’s All-Star festivities. Competing in the shootout contest, Tarasenko used the force to send the goaltender the wrong way before recalling the puck and sliding it into an empty net. This great bit of trickery is unfortunately pulled off with a very basic solution (string and tape) but the result was a fantastic one. The attempt is pretty impressive even upon multiple viewings, but even Tank’s bit of magic wasn’t enough to get even the slightest reaction from the stoic Russian commentators.
Tarasenko has been a hot topic of late following his trade within the KHL. Moving from HC Sibir Novosibirsk to the larger SKA St. Petersburgh, Tarasenko’s future remains unclear. One of, if not the, most exciting prospect in the St. Louis organization, Tarasenko’s worth will be greatly influenced by when he makes the jump to the NHL – if at all.
St. Petersburgh has a larger budget and the ability to retain Tarasenko if they wanted. It all comes down to what Tarasenko wants to do. While the above shootout goal is nothing more than some basic trickery, Tarasenko has some very real skill that’s magic in its own way that Blues fans would love to see representing their club.
Tags: Shootout, St. Louis Blues, Video, Vladimir Tarasenko
Amusing shootout goal. To me, it raises a larger point: When is the last time the Blues, outside of Oshie, made a goalie actively lose track of the puck with a great move? I understand that most goals these days are the through-traffic or redirection type plays, or the post-to-post type. This applies in spades to the Blues shootout woes, too. A high number of shots is all well and good, but too many of them lately have been low percentage, easily stoppable shots that just serve to artificially inflate opposing SV% - particularly in cases where the Blues are also not capitalizing on the rebounds that these save-able first shots generate.
Speaking of post-to-post plays, the passes have got to be faster to make it work with any kind of regularity. If the opposing goalie has several seconds to watch the pass develop and reposition himself, he's going to stop it, pretty much guaranteed. D to D one-timers of this variety particularly have been failing the Blues in this regard.
I know the guys understand all this already, and I know the fans understand this already... but it still frustrates me. *sigh*
All that said, if the offense is gonna get healthy, the Sabres are a good team to do it against for all the reasons mentioned recently about their road futility. No excuse for making Miller or Enroth look like another world-beater.
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