When Vladimir Tarasenko first broke into the NHL, plenty of fans referred to him as Tank. Not long after, it was revealed Tarasenko wasn’t a fan of that nickname, which then led to the creation of Frank. Both names are still used pretty often today (Tank more so than Frank), but Tarasenko has reiterated that he wants to be known by his actual name and he’s got a good reason.
As seen over on STLToday, Tarasenko spoke about what he likes to be called as well as why nicknames and Tank aren’t appealing to him.
“My point, in Russia, nicknames are like (for) dogs. Dogs can have a nickname. Nobody use nicknames (for people) in Russia. We use names. You’re supposed to respect their names. Looks more smart if you use the names.”
Tank, for me, I know a lot of stuff about the war because it’s really big in Russia. It’s power and just go through everybody, but I don’t want to use it because … we lost like almost 20 million. My grandparents, they were there. My grandpa’s father make the tanks probably. So I don’t really want to see some jokes about war or nicknames.”
Tarasenko also commented that he’d like to be called Vladimir, Vladi, Vova or by his last name. Vova may appear to be a nickname, but in Russian it’s a shortened version of Vladimir.
Considering how respectful he appears to be off the ice and how incredibly talented he is on the ice, Blues fans should ditch the nicknames and refer to Tarasenko by his actual name.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
