Becoming Wild: Vladimir Tarasenko

Becoming Wild: Vladimir Tarasenko

All I wanted to do when I were a kid, not disappoint my dad and my grandpa and prove them that like I can be something and also try to earn some money to get them better living. Time will tell. Unfortunately, they both not here anymore, but I’m just trying to live a life hoping they can see me from the heaven. And the St. Louis Blues are the Stanley Cup champions. The Florida Panthers have won the Stanley Cup. I’m still living a life to not disappoint them, living by their things they told me. And that’s what we’re trying to share with the kids. And they always told me like you can be a great hockey player, but first of all, you have to be a good man. I want more and I want to achieve more and I want my kids and my family see more of me. [Applause] Not bad, eh? A lot of time in the summer was great not only to train but also heal uh uh mentally and getting ready for a new season which more excited and more driven right now than I was uh when the off season started. [Music] [Music] Sasha. Uh, good morning. Good morning. Yeah, we have three kids. Mark is the oldest. He’s 18 years old. He will play in Dallas. We will live with the village family. He’s very excited for opportunity, but we will miss him. He met Vlatty when he was almost 8 years old. He didn’t skate before, but he’s a goalie now. He’s well behaved, and everything he has, it’s because of Ly. [Applause] [Music] We also have Sasha. He’s 9year-old and Arum. He’s six. They’re not going anywhere. They stay with us. Slide. Ho. Slide. One. Two. Ho. Slide. Slide. Slide. Chin up. Hands. Hey. Arms. Don’t look at your feet. Look straight. Watch where you’re going. See? Hey. Watch g up every time. Ho one, two, ho. Slide, slide. Hey, and go. Ho. Been a long week for them. They have a couple camps before. Lot of skating. Get a coach from our friend company Bessa Hockey. Andre came in to help us. One, two, hook. Toes up. Toes up. Hook. One, two, three, hook. Oh. Yeah. Heads. Hands. Hook. Arms. Arms. Hook. Nice. Hook. Quick. Quick. Quick. Quick. Oh, enough. That’s faster there. Hands. Hands. My boss, his name is Bessa. He worked with the Boston Bruins and uh Pittsburgh Penguins. He got the two Stanley Cups and uh I have been working for him for more than 10 years now. We know Tarasenko pretty well. And now we are working with his kids too. Run away. Run from me. Run from me. Up. Up. Ho. Light jump. Ho. Light jump. Arasa. Hold it. Hold. Ho. Hold it. like a choo choo train. Skate, skate, skate, skate, skate. Right now, how do you become so fast? It’s important to skate. If you don’t know how to skate fast and efficient, you cannot make it to pro. Make a good start. Make aggressive stuff. Not like a cheetah. What’s it like for you working with this family? I love it. Telling the truth. I love it. And kids are working hard. They skated with me before for three days and they skated with Bessa and they work harder. We are having fun. This is very important right now. Having fun. And I want to see wide moves like Anaconda. You have you seen Anaconda? Big snake. Stick down. One, two. Huh? One, two. Huh? Hey, wide moves. I’ll not push my kids to play hockey no matter what. If they don’t want to, it’s not making them happy, then they should pick something would make, you know, make them smile. My dad and my grandpa always told me like you have to enjoy what you’re doing and you have to learn to enjoy the hard work. I was born in Yarus maybe 4hour drive from Moscow. Then my parents separated they flew me to Nova Berskits in Siberia like 4-hour drive from Kuriel’s hometown. I lived with my grandparents until I was 10 years old because my dad used to play hockey as well. And grandpa was the guy who put me on skates. I think I was 5 years old. I just started skating and liking it. Then I started watching some tapes of my dad. Some of his goals. He been in Olympic games. He have a camera on him, you know, walking and filming Olympic games. I watched that tape so many times. He passed away last year right after Stanley Cup. will be always in our thoughts. I never looked up to anybody else in my mind. I will never probably have another not idol but another role model in sports other than him. We win a game. I don’t know if I’m good or no. I feel like I’m feel like I’m overreacting a lot and I’m trying to push them as hard as I’ve been pushed when I were younger. And I learned during the process that not every kid is like this. You spend a lot of time on um my grandparents had a house. I was looking how hard they work, but also they push me so hard. But in the same time, my grandpa was very strict with me. But when it was time to have fun, we always have fun. Pennsylvania shle. [Applause] Wow, that was their family, you know. They love each other. They good example of how family should look like. [Music] If I have a chance to like hang out and skate with my kids, I love to do it. I think it’s a memory stay forever and it’s might be one of not many chances today where we all can come out on the ice because every day they have practice or he have practiced and um I just like to do it. [Music] All right, guys. No cheating. Yeah. Whoever has the least wins. What the best man win? Sasha, youngest to oldest. So the other two took piece in a pot. They always together. They love each other. They love Mark. Mark is a great brother. He babysit them a lot. The boys are really tight. I I go again. I go again. Everyone gets to read this. I met Mark first time in France. I was training back home. She left to France. Eventually, one day at the beach, she introduced Mark to me. Just went with me to pick up sea glass. That’s nine. That’s free. Led became his friend first and his dad eventually. He teach him everything. He’s just really hardworking, really passionate about hockey. So, I get a lot of my inspiration to be like him from seeing him work every day. It like loops around. So, if you shoot in there, it’s going to loop around and do a hole in one. Okay. I’m somewhat of a babysitter when I have to be. So, I would say they look up to me, but I like to teach them the best lessons I can. See that thing? You have to shoot right there. Mhm. Okay. Three, two, one, go. Nice. Good shot. In our household as you see we try to give a kids an idea that if you have a family who always support you like it’s your place where you can always come back you know the home will be always home and we’re trying to transfer this to our kids so we have a family appreciation and uh trying to show it by the example that we can be happy together [Music] Yeah, yeah, yeah. R O B R Ya. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s something new. We just moved into the house recently and let’s rent out a golf cart just to see how how it is. In the summer, it’s more chances, but usually it’s somebody always busy with something. And we really appreciated those days where all of us can be together, especially with um Bob being um well trained and a service dog. So, he can he’s able to go with us to any place we go. And this is our like final week of the summer together, I guess. What’s up, boy? My pas. That’s an unusual situation. Midday ice cream. Still trying to to teach them my right habits, but because of you guys came today, they enjoy the midday ice cream. [Music] And also, can you please have this cola for you? You go to that gelata because one time we drive by the street and Artium like was so hungry. So, we end up in a Korean barbecue place and then we went for a walk and we walking by this place like, “Oh, ice cream. You want ice cream? [Music] Iceed coffee. Just plain black.” Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I’m not really into sweets, but if I pick one, it would be vanilla or pistachio. I mean, caramel is nice, too. Like, who don’t like caramel? But if I choose one vanilla, the kids really enjoy the ice cream. So, that’s I guess our ice cream place now. One, two. [Music] Mark, tell me what it’s like just being around these kids all day. It’s crazy, but it’s fun. I enjoy it. They’re always learning, always exploring. I try to be my best to be the best influence for them. [Music] after dinner. Come out here with kids. It’s usually on a weekday. It’s nice and peaceful. Usually watch the sunset here and um just enjoy the time together. Hey, motor. Turn right if you like me. Turn right if you like me. Turn left if you like me. We went on the boat and then there was a lot of sharks there. One time I saw one here. No, no, no. Stop. I saw Stop lying. Stop lying. Oh, big fish is under. Big fish is right under us. So, this is how I catch fish. Every time I did this, I have catch a fish. I don’t even know if it’s fish or no. Okay, shrimp. I know you don’t have a face, but you don’t see me, but right in front of you is me. Okay. Hi. Hi. I’m right here. Okay. That’s not even that far to to my most longest cast. My most longest cast is here to that building right there. Away. Is it? I saw a Sulk. I caught a Sulk. Yeah, it’s true. He caught one. You reeled it in. He It was like a big shark. It was a big nurse shark. So, I like hold it on to him like this. So, so that he does not like fall down with the fishing rod. You know what I think? I think this is it. I’ll supposed to get a fish right now. Arum, I’m I’m coming with some ice. roll [Music] Jana. There is no better no better guy than him to get a fish because um calling you out. He is the youngest. But he trying to keep up with with the 9-year-old and he would do everything what Sasha do and they do everything together. Try to do everything together. That’s true. But uh the little winds like this, you know, make us smile because um he’s trying too hard. He need to get rewarded. You might we might create a YouTube channel and there’s outdoor boys, outdoor Tom, outdoor Archum. Imagine outdoor Mark. Outdoor Mark. [Music] I think last four years I wake up early and um just go do my workout. Yeah, it’s maybe 30 more minutes till the sunrise. Sometimes it’s nice when you drive and it start become uh more brighter and sun goes up and I don’t really like to work out after skating. So sometimes you need to go and like do it early. Spend more time with the off ice first couple months of the summer and then start skating. But um in the same time like I like to start earlier because uh we work out outside also here in Florida outside at like 8:30 9 it’s already hot [Music] trunk real tight. Real tight. Get right. End it about right here. come back like right like like diet level. That’s it. The bomb performance systems is gyms we have in South Florida. Like the one we’re in right now is the Miami facility. This is designed for athletes of all ages. You know, we train grade school, middle school, high school, collegiate, and professional athletes. This is a heavy NHL offseason time. You know, leading into camp. Let it separate more at the bottom almost to the ground. You know what I’m saying? Separate more right there. Yep. But go slow on the way up. Slight pause. That’s it. I started working with him. I think it was 2021 or 22. You know, he came to me after he had that long delay off with his with the issues with his shoulder. That’s drive up. Drive. Good. Good. Right there. That’s it. When he came in, we did an eval and I showed him our style of training. some of it was new to him and he was just kind of intrigued by the whole setup of everything is one big unit. So, slow down, pause, slow up, hit the four count at the top. He’s very passionate like he’s u believe in what he’s doing. There’s a science behind it, but also it all comes back to you can surround yourself with people you want to be feeling good with. Go. Three, two, one. Good. It means I push the right foot more than the left slightly. In real time as he’s training with these isometrics, we can get the biometrics of what the symmetry is right side versus left side. So the hamstring has two functions at the hip at the knee. The most hockey specific is at the hip. When he went down, you see how hard it was from the shoulder to the knee to maintain a straight line. That is active hip extension isometrics. That’s crucial to how hockey players skate. The entire operation is set up not just for highle training, but high level training that’s very specific to somebody’s body type, somebody’s injury history. And luckily for us, I think we met Vlad at the right time. You know, he wanted to change things up because of the frustration of missing so much time, which is evident with any professional athlete that has an injury like that. Keep the buff forward. Glutes, glutes, glutes. That’s it. It’s there, though. I’ll take that. Like a lot of guys want to come in and just get, okay, I want to lift. I want to get strong. I need to get fast. Let me do plometrics, you know, and they don’t have the same mental focus when it comes to little things. That’s joint alignment or things that may not look hockey specific or skating specific or for that matter specific on anything. When we explain it to a guy like Vlad, you can see the mental focus with every little thing. Lock your ankles. Lock your ankles. Lock your ankles. Good. I get the fact that he’s getting up there in age, but as I said, that’s our specialty. I don’t care if it’s Frank Gore, who I trained from the day he came out of University of Miami all the way through his what felt like a hundredyear career. And he just Same kind of thing with Frank. He kept defying odds. Lock the right elbow. Good. He was supposed to retire, supposed to do this, supposed to do that. He’s kept playing at a very high level for how many years? You know, Vlad’s like the Frank Gore of the NHL. You know what? Guys that are playing with a chip on their shoulder that have something to prove, especially when they’re older, like they’re not just giving in. Like, they’re fighting back and they want to prove to everybody how good that they still are. And I love that. And number 91, Vlatty Terasenko. The first goal of his career. He coughs it up. Schwarz to Teraseo. He scores. Terrao. He’s always excited to be on the ice. He’s happy to be there, but always cares about winning and always has that thrive to win. The Florida Panthers have won the Stanley Cup. Even he won twice, he’s still hungry and he wants to win again and again. I’m so proud to be his wife and his biggest fan. Score. What a goal. He’s a special talent for putting the puck in the net and obviously another guy who’s won a Stanley Cup, a couple of them, but to finally have him on our side is big for us. Terra Sento with his second goal of the third period. There’s a lot of stuff I don’t think I achieved in uh my career. What I want to do. The biggest thing is like I don’t want to say, hey, I’m a two-time champion. Like that’s enough for me. I just going to play, you know. No, I want to try to win more. I wanted to win the cups with the teams who never win before. been two already like which I was lucky and fortunate to do and hopefully I’ll have a third one. Good evening everyone. This is Gordon Miller with Pierre Maguire in Buffalo, New York where tonight hockeyy’s oldest and greatest rivalry is renewed. Here they come again. Terasco it in front. They score. Baron gives the Russians the lead with 438 to go. For me when I was young beat Canada in final when these guys was down 03 after second period and world junior championship for me I remember I was uh I should be going school in the morning and I think all Russia watching this game because it was big game usually like Canada and Russia and then in third period come back. Canada’s greatest rival is about to pull one of the biggest upsets in the history of international hockey. I miss my first class and uh me and my father remember we watched this game him and Kito and the Russians are back. World junior champions for the first time since 2003. [Applause] I think he was one of the best player in his age and uh then he go in NHL. I remember I watching his highlight every game how he scored then he won Stanley Cup. I was happy for him and for his family. He’s one of the guy who I watching all the time how he played. By show um I love my dad a lot and my mom especially my big brother. I f my dog. Yes. Yeah. My dog, too.

Two-time Stanley Cup Champion and four-time NHL All-Star Vladimir Tarasenko has long been Minnesota’s foe, but in the Summer of 2025 he joined the Wild roster and became our friend. As the State of Hockey gets the know our new #91, it quickly becomes clear that Vladi is an easy guy to root for. Especially because he won’t be sitting on the visitor’s bench.

In this episode of Becoming Wild–presented by Toyota–get to know Tarasenko and his family by visiting their offseason home in Florida. Whether its an early morning at the rink, a golf cart ride around town, or a late night fishing mission out on the water, the Tarasenko’s make the most of their summer spending time together as a family. Plus, see the work Vladi puts in to make sure he is at his best heading to this chapter of his hockey career.