Article: Marco Rossi's World Championships A Good Sign For His Future

[Tony Abbott]

View full article

[viper3119]

Great article! This next year is definitely make or break for Rossi, hopefully he and the coaching staff and help add some size and strength this summer and he comes out with a fire this fall.  Also, hopefully he get a crack at the top 2 lines instead of the 4th line junk he was getting a lot this past fall.

[MNCountryLife]

I sure hope Rossi puts in the time and effort into himself so that he is can be productive with the MN Wild.   He has 4 months to greatly improve his strength and skating.

[Up North Guy]

Good article Tony. My fear is that Deano is just not the best coach for Rossi. Every head coach has "his guys" that he leans on and plays in every situation, but Deano seems to be a little extreme in that regard. That is just one more hurdle for Rossi to get past. Who knows, maybe he really isn't built for the NHL. But will we know of he never gets a legit shot? Playing 4th line grinder is not going to work for either the Wild or Rossi.

[vonlonster67]

I watched Rossi in the IIHF games and he looked good against the lower end teams and about the same against the premier teams. In fact, just like he looked against the NHL talent in his 16 games. If he looked good against the premier teams as Tony alluded to it was only in apples and not goals.

I'm seriously having doubts about him being a center in the NHL and he may only be a wing on a line with some other talent to draw the D away from him. He does a lot of watching and not so much checking or grinding.

At this point, we may as well just sit back and see if he pulls an Ek as far as timeline. I'm worried, as you cant teach the physical presence he needs in his game at the NHL level. Either you have it or you don't.

He a nice kid and I've been impressed with his composure off the ice. He's had a tough road and his determination is constant. I wish him luck, but I'm ready to move on after 24-25 if we continue down this same path this year.

[mnfaninnc]

Tony, what did you see when you watched those full Iowa games? Was it a timid Rossi, or an aggressive one? Was it consistent, or just flashes?

It is clearly one thing to perform against jr. kids who are more in your weight class, it is quite another to do it against men. What I saw was Rossi being very timid during his 1st stint up in the N. He deferred and looked scared to get his hands dirty. 

2nd call up showed stark improvement each game. 1st game was more of the same, timid Rossi. 2nd game showed a little more selfish play, yet Rossi was easily knocked off pucks and knocked down. 3rd game had at least 1 flash of quickness and suddenness. And, it carried over to the A where his suddenness became a little more noticeable.

None of us knows how much the myocarditis took out of the kid. None of us knows the actual strength he lost, nor where he is on rebuilding it. None of us knows the full mental toll it took on him. But one thing is for sure, the player I saw on the ice for 19 games does not look remotely close to the player I thought we were drafting, or the scouting reports read. 

It may just be that this strength, especially lower body strength gets regained this offseason. I'm really rooting for the kid to make the transition, but he looked a lot closer to a 15 year old kid in the training videos we saw mid season than someone who has filled out. Ek wasn't built in a day. For him to be the monster he is now, it took 2-3 offseasons of training. 

The highlight above and a highlight vs. Rockford where he did essentially the same thing are cause for hope. If that player shows up next season, maybe we have something. If we get deferring Rossi again, change of scenery might be best. 

Here's the main thing: We have lots of wings, we need centers. We really don't have the depth to allow Rossi to transition to wing like Granlund did. We need centers, and if he's not it, perhaps he helps us get one.

[Protec]

I'm willing to focus on the future. Can't wait to see Rossi go coast to coast against the American or Canadian team or an NHL team. 

I'm interested to see if the best guy from the worst Country but better than Hungary can make it.

[TCMooch]

At this point there is nothing left for him to prove. Give him some damn top 6 minutes and fucking set him up for success. Minnesota Wild suck ass developing talent and I don’t get what is so fuccking hard about it.

[Backwoodsbob]

1 hour ago, mnfaninnc said:

Tony, what did you see when you watched those full Iowa games? Was it a timid Rossi, or an aggressive one? Was it consistent, or just flashes?

It is clearly one thing to perform against jr. kids who are more in your weight class, it is quite another to do it against men. What I saw was Rossi being very timid during his 1st stint up in the N. He deferred and looked scared to get his hands dirty. 

2nd call up showed stark improvement each game. 1st game was more of the same, timid Rossi. 2nd game showed a little more selfish play, yet Rossi was easily knocked off pucks and knocked down. 3rd game had at least 1 flash of quickness and suddenness. And, it carried over to the A where his suddenness became a little more noticeable.

None of us knows how much the myocarditis took out of the kid. None of us knows the actual strength he lost, nor where he is on rebuilding it. None of us knows the full mental toll it took on him. But one thing is for sure, the player I saw on the ice for 19 games does not look remotely close to the player I thought we were drafting, or the scouting reports read. 

It may just be that this strength, especially lower body strength gets regained this offseason. I'm really rooting for the kid to make the transition, but he looked a lot closer to a 15 year old kid in the training videos we saw mid season than someone who has filled out. Ek wasn't built in a day. For him to be the monster he is now, it took 2-3 offseasons of training. 

The highlight above and a highlight vs. Rockford where he did essentially the same thing are cause for hope. If that player shows up next season, maybe we have something. If we get deferring Rossi again, change of scenery might be best. 

Here's the main thing: We have lots of wings, we need centers. We really don't have the depth to allow Rossi to transition to wing like Granlund did. We need centers, and if he's not it, perhaps he helps us get one.

Agreed!

From the small sample we saw, Rossi seemed hesitant. Is he thinking too much? Is he just afraid of making mistakes? Whatever it was, he was not ready IMO. And of course, playing him on the bottom 6 isn't really giving the kid the best chance to play with more skilled players.

I'd like to see him play his game as he did in the pre-season games. Maybe it was just the fact that they were meaningless games and he seemed to play with confidence and wasn't thinking or worrying about screwing up.

The last game he played against Chicago, he showed some glimmer of hope on a few shifts. Hopefully with him doing the off-season training here building strength and speed, along with gaining more confidence, he can take the next step and make it to the big league.

 

[Protec]

Somewhat related Hungarian hockey player, Tamas Gyori died suddenly. 

Age 33. Wonder what that was all about?

[UncleWalt]

I signed up for an account solely to give a shout out to TCMooch. Amen.

[Mateo3xm]

On 5/24/2023 at 4:40 PM, TCMooch said:

At this point there is nothing left for him to prove. Give him some damn top 6 minutes and fucking set him up for success. Minnesota Wild suck ass developing talent and I don’t get what is so fuccking hard about it.

Could not agree more. With what he showed in the preseason they figured they should put him on the 4th line? Wtf sense does that make.

I get they’re different but what the fck are they trying to do with his development?

he needs to be allowed to make mistakes as well. You don’t bench him after a crappy showing by the team. I despise that type of handling of young players.