Tarasenko's work ethic enables return for playoffs

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Sometimes we may take for granted how much work it takes for a professional athlete to recovery from an injury and/or surgery in order to get himself back into game shape.

Take Vladimir Tarasenko of the St. Louis Blues, who, as relayed via In the Slot, will be back in the lineup one month after surgery on his right hand.

"There's no limitations," Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock said. "He deserves an awful lot of credit. He did the double extra duty to be physically conditioned and ready to play. This is going to be a significant challenge for him because first, he's never played in a playoff game very much and secondly, he's missed a lot of time.

"We understand that part, but between the training staff and his commitment to conditioning knowing that the injury he had would allow him to play right away, he himself deserves an awful lot of credit. He has worked extra hard to be in the best shape of his life right now, which is going to allow him to keep up at this time of year.

"I think if he doesn't put all the extra work in that he's done off ice, on ice, everywhere, then I don't think we would have been able to play him. But because of all the extra work that Vladi's done, he's been a great participant and there's been some really tough days for him that we've pushed him through the wall on some stuff.

"All of this was with a chance to play in the playoffs. Originally, it was no-go for the first round and now you're seeing a guy play Game 1, which is really significant."

Specifics on his rehab?

"You're talking six, seven hours a day at the rink," Hitchcock said. "Two-, two-and-a-half hours on the ice mostly by himself, various conditioning levels, pushing the envelope, getting him into shift shape, which is very difficult when you don't have anybody to play with. First month basically playing with nobody. He's had two practices with somebody and now he's going to play in a playoff game. He's had to do this pretty much all on his own and then when he was able to join the group, it's been a couple hockey practices and away you go. He's been very diligent in working with an against the coaches. They provided the opposition for him until he was cleared to come and join us and how he's up and running."

Source: Lou Korac, In The Slot