“He’s not going to be surprised by anything, he’s going to be way more ready, so I think our hope is that you see a player more comfortable, more composed, more assured of himself and I think this year we’ll get a really good evaluation. In talking to him, he’s about as far away as you can get from sophomore jinx. He’s hungry, he’s focused. Now you get to see his natural ability on a daily basis.”

-Ken Hitchcock, head coach of the St. Louis Blues on Vladimir Tarasenko. More from Jeremey Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.