Ken Hitchcock will not stop speaking.
The St. Louis Blues coach has been more than open to the media during the NHL playoffs. He’s been public about his relationship with Vladimir Tarasenko, who clearly hasn’t been enthralled with his coach’s deployment. Hitchcock said he loves the beef, but in reality, it’s not the healthiest thing to have your best player actively be against your decisions.
You’d think Hitchcock would learn from opening his mouth to the media, but following the San Jose Sharks 3-0 victory over Hitchcock’s Blues, the head coach said Tarasenko is learning some “hard lessons in the playoffs.”
“He’s learning hard lessons, like any other player. Robby (Fabbri) is learning it, Parayko is learning it. Vladi is learning some really hard lessons,” Hitchcock said.
“Some guys never learn it. Some guys can’t do it. Some guys learn that lesson and they really become accomplished players, especially scoring players. But (Tarasenko’s) going to have to fight through everything if he expects to score a goal and contribute offensively,” Hitchcock added.
I understand what Hitchcock’s getting at. Tarasenko is 24 and is still learning. He’s been going through a pretty bad slump with one empty net goal in his last six games, but still, Hitchcock unintentionally called him out with these comments.
The issue isn’t saying Tarasenko can still learn, it’s saying that “some guys never learn it,” which Hitchcock is basically lumping him in with. Tarasenko still has seven goals in the playoffs. He’s got it. He’d probably have more goals if Hitchcock deployed him correctly. Hitchcock makes it sound like he may never score again.
Hitch needs to be more positive. Some advice: Don’t continually bring up your best player’s name when talking about team struggles. It’s a bad look.
[theScore]
