Yahoo Sports New Red Wings Coach Offers Encouragement to Struggling Star
Vladimir Tarasenko's tenure with the Detroit Red Wings hasn't gotten out to the start he hoped for. Through 35 games, he has just four goals and nine assists, while his 14:33 average time on ice is his lowest figure since playing just 38 games as a rookie in St. Louis back in 2012–13.
Timothy T. Ludwig, Imagn Images
However, after today's practice, new coach Todd McLellan offered a word of encouragement about the state of the struggling star's game:
"Vladdy's scored 40 goals in this league, he's won Cups, and he was brought here to provide some of that, and he will. Vladdy's very—at least in my what? 72 hours now around Vladdy—I really like Vladdy. He's got a great personality, and I think he's a very cerebral individual. He thinks a lot about situations. And sometimes those guys with new coaching staffs and new teammates and new teams, it takes a little while longer, because they're trying to analyze everything. At least, that's my opinion. I could be completely wrong. But I think it will come for Vladdy. He's been moved around a fair amount—not only in the past but already by us. He's been on a number of different lines, so if we can just find him a solid home, that would be nice. Somebody that he can connect with. We haven't been able to do that yet, but maybe J.T. [Compher] can be that guy."
Last night, Tarasenko skated with Jonatan Berggren on Compher's wings. It sounds as though McLellan would like for him to find some stability in that capacity. Meanwhile, Monday's practice did bring a bit of success for Tarasenko. Detroit started practice with a knockout puck protection competition, with Tarasenko edging out Compher in the finals to claim victory.
This evolved into a knockout competition with Tarasenko knocking Compher’s puck loose in the finals https://t.co/l7gZAuWykh
— Sam Stockton (@_samstockton) December 30, 2024
Of that drill, McLellan explained, "Every coach starts practice with some sort of warm-up drill. You get the body sweating a little bit and the hands moving. It can become pretty monotonous when you just do the same thing. That type of drill is actually fun. There's a fun element to it. It gets the guys' spirit up, and it's competitive right off the bat. They don't even realize it because they're enjoying it. And it usually sets a real good tone for practice. Now we won't do it all the time, but I felt our team could use that today."
Perhaps Tarasenko can translate the confidence won via some friendly internal competition into some scoring in the games to come.
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