Vladimir Tarasenko needed time to gather himself.
Called out in St. Louis for not addressing the media on locker clean-out day, the 24-year-old has cleared the air in regards to his silence immediately following a Western Conference Final loss at the hands of the San Jose Sharks.
"I wasn't ready to talk," he said Tuesday, according to Tom Timmerman of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "I was too frustrated, too upset, too pissed off about our loss and I don't want to give you guys a hard time to talk with me because I was so mad.
"(But) it's good to have this experience in your life because you know now what it takes to go this deep and give you a chance to prepare better and go deep next time."
Tarasenko also laughed off the suggestion of growing friction with the club, exacerbated by being called out by head coach Ken Hitchcock after Game 5 of the series with San Jose.
"We have really good relationships," he said. "The media talk about problems between me and the Blues, it's never been a problem. If there was going to be a problem, I would not sign for eight years."
The winger - who carries a cap hit of $7.5 million through to the end of the 2022-23 season - is seen as a key piece to the puzzle in St. Louis moving forward, and rightfully so.
Over the past two regular seasons, he's scored 77 goals in 157 games, with 15 tallies in 26 playoff contests.
