Tarasenko is healthy and ready to run it back with defending champs

The defending Stanley Cup Champions, the St. Louis Blues had put together a stellar campaign in 2019-20 despite the fact that they played most of the season without arguably their best player in Russian sniper Vladimir Tarasenko.

Tarasenko was held to just 10 games this season after undergoing a procedure on Oct 29th to surgically repair a dislocated left shoulder. Though he was close to returning prior to the stoppage in play on March 12th, the 28-year-old believes that the extra time off may have been for the best, at least in terms of his recovery.

"I was really close to coming back and playing when the season was delayed so I got some extra time to recover," Tarasenko told NHL.com's Adam Kimelman. "Not even recover, extra time practicing and making it more strong. Everything is good."

A healthy Tarasenko is a massive boost for a team who has not exactly struggled with any sort of "Stanley Cup hangover" in 2019-20. "Tank", as his teammates and coaches call him, has led the team in goals for five-consecutive seasons prior to this one - and for a Blues team that already sits atop the Western Conference with 94 points, you'd be hard-pressed to pick a better contender to take a run at Lord Stanley this season than last year's champs.

Tarasenko had been chomping at the bit to get back into game-form prior to the stoppage, working hard to rehab his shoulder and regain his overall strength and conditioning.

"You start slow, you start with the basics, some exercises where you can ... not learn to skate again, but remember the feeling, and I think it'll be pretty quick (to come back)," he said.

"I skated a few times (during the pause) so it wasn't that hard. It's like the usual start to skating, you work on the basics and you move to harder and harder levels."

The talented winger was happy to get some reps in with the team ahead of the league's decision to pause, considering himself lucky - despite the fact that he was not able to return to game action in March.

"The closer you get, the more positive emotions you have, the more happy you are for seeing the boys for the first time, skating with them," he said. "I was lucky to go on a couple road trips (before the season pause) and feel that atmosphere. I'm ready to come back and play some hockey."

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