Player Discussion Marco Rossi

[TaLoN]

Time for a player thread... got his first goal tonight!

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[Blue Ox]

Atta boy Marco!!! Happy for him! And us!

 

[JiricekSaveUs]

He just turned 22. I feel like he’s one of those guys who will just continue to get better every year too. If he gets a little stronger, faster, and improves his shot each summer until he’s 26 he could be a real stud

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

Tage Thompson Rule.

 

[Luceni]

Future First line C in the making.

 

[MK9]

Has definitely been noticeable in mostly good ways so far. Doesn't appear timid. Can kind of see & almost feel he's got a different air about him on the ice. Think last year was a good wake up call for him. I think a little success is going to really get him to ramp up quickly and start hitting his stride. (Hopefully).

 

[Nino Noderreiter]

I noticed this in his junior highlights, he’s really tenacious in front of the net and has great hand eye and strength on his stick. I have seen that this year for the first time. He’s been really moving his feet in all 3 zones and has been able to get his shoulder and hip in front of guys both offensively and defensively and keep them on his hip behind him and to hold onto the puck and make plays.

He’s really good at finding space without the puck. He’s also got great vision. He made 2-3 incredible touch/area passes into high danger areas that was awesome. If he can be an above average finisher or better in tight he’s going to put up a lot of points playing like this — especially once he gets PP time which he 100% should if he keeps this up.

 

[Digitalbooya]

Happy for Marco. He has 2 goals in 2 games in my book. Much improved player.

 

[BagHead]

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

I thought for sure that Toronto was going to challenge for goalie interference on Faber.

 

[Mookie Blaylock]

 

[MrRuin]

It is just another example of not giving up on prospects too early. Some take longer, some hit their stride sooner (and sometimes struggle later on for stretches). No one player is the same. I see the same now with the Red Wings and Marco Kasper (a friggin 19 year old) after a bad first NHL camp. Patience, people.

 

[BagHead]

After two games Marco Rossi is 16th on the team in average time on ice, 1st in shots, and tied for 1st in goals (would be 1st outright if not for Foligno's offsides). Most encouragingly, in 2 games he has a little more than half as many shots as he had in 19 games last year. At this rate, he'll have a new career high in shots in only 4 games. Very small sample, but a good start.

 

[MuckOG]

Largely agree with the comments above. To me what stood out the most in his first couple of games compared to last season was his willingness to engage physically.

 

[AKL]

@Dr Jan Itor where is the confluence of Rossi earning a promotion and Hartman earning a demotion, given where they both are today? Does Rossi need to consistently outscore him? Does he just need to generate better opportunities? Keeping in mind that Rossi is playing with Foligno and Gaudreau and Hartman is playing with Kaprizov and Zuccarello, how does the switch happen, in your eyes?

 

[Circulartheory]

@Dr Jan Itor where is the confluence of Rossi earning a promotion and Hartman earning a demotion, given where they both are today? Does Rossi need to consistently outscore him? Does he just need to generate better opportunities? Keeping in mind that Rossi is playing with Foligno and Gaudreau and Hartman is playing with Kaprizov and Zuccarello, how does the switch happen, in your eyes?

Not going to answer for him but I'll add my 2 cents - unfortunately with our coaching staff, I don't think its in Rossi's control. He can play lights out and score 60 points with Foligno and Gaudreau but that will only cement their thinking of "that is where he belongs or has chemistry".

It's going to come down to Hartman (and to a certain extent JEE). If JEE produces with Boldy/Johansson, they aren't going to touch that line. So if Hartman gets injured, or that line struggles - and if Rossi keeps producing - that's when he get up there. Even if Hartman doesn't produce but Kaprizov/Zuccs does, then nothing changes, the whole line needs to struggle and Hartman is the usually the 3rd wheel in that bromance.

 

[AKL]

Not going to answer for him but I'll add my 2 cents - unfortunately with our coaching staff, I don't think its in Rossi's control. He can play lights out and score 60 points with Foligno and Gaudreau but that will only cement their thinking of "that is where he belongs or has chemistry".

It's going to come down to Hartman (and to a certain extent JEE). If JEE produces with Boldy/Johansson, they aren't going to touch that line. So if Hartman gets injured, or that line struggles - and if Rossi keeps producing - that's when he get up there. Even if Hartman doesn't produce but Kaprizov/Zuccs does, then nothing changes, the whole line needs to struggle and Hartman is the usually the 3rd wheel in that bromance.

This is my concern. Rossi has no path to that spot.

 

[Circulartheory]

This is my concern. Rossi has no path to that spot.

He has no easy path (why can't you make it easy Dean) but I've always been skeptical of our first line coming into this season. I predict it will struggle - Hartman will show he's more suited to be a key player on a 3rd shutdown/agitation line with Foligno and Zuccarello will suffer from inconsistency come winter time.

I believe and predict that will be inevitable. What I didn't predict was how good Rossi would look so I did not think there was a chance he would move up. But now there is. So I believe there is a path ... through predicted failure ... hah

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

@Dr Jan Itor where is the confluence of Rossi earning a promotion and Hartman earning a demotion, given where they both are today? Does Rossi need to consistently outscore him? Does he just need to generate better opportunities? Keeping in mind that Rossi is playing with Foligno and Gaudreau and Hartman is playing with Kaprizov and Zuccarello, how does the switch happen, in your eyes?

I think it's just more looking at the line as a whole. If Kaprizov's line is producing (and we're winning), there's not going to make any changes. If they're struggling, then the easiest fix will be to swap a non-struggling Rossi into Hartman's spot. Whether they'll do that, or just move Gaudreau to that spot, remains to be seen.

 

[DeagleJenkins]

I think it's just more looking at the line as a whole. If Kaprizov's line is producing (and we're winning), there's not going to make any changes. If they're struggling, then the easiest fix will be to swap a non-struggling Rossi into Hartman's spot. Whether they'll do that, or just move Gaudreau to that spot, remains to be seen.

And now you jynxed it with appropriate speculation. Gaudreau will be promoted over Rossi.

 

[JiricekSaveUs]

Are we all on the same page that Rossi is a better skater than Granlund was? I don’t think Rossi is a blazer by any means but he’s got great edge work and small area quickness

 

[AKL]

I go back and forth between whether he should play with Kaprizov or Boldy when the lineup is healthy.

I think the answer is both?

 

[JiricekSaveUs]

I go back and forth between whether he should play with Kaprizov or Boldy when the lineup is healthy.

I think the answer is both?

Boldy. I don’t know what it is but Kaprizov is a hard player to play with. Boldy can play with and raise anyone’s game. Rossi can get there but it’s a lot of pressure to put in him this early on.

 

[keppel146]

Are we all on the same page that Rossi is a better skater than Granlund was? I don’t think Rossi is a blazer by any means but he’s got great edge work and small area quickness

Maybe in certain aspects like you’re mentioning, like when playing down low.

But Granny could have been worse.

 

[Nino Noderreiter]

Maybe in certain aspects like you’re mentioning, like when playing down low.

But Granny could have been worse.

I think that Granlund became a better skater than Rossi is currently in the context of Granlund became really good at skating without the puck to ensure that when he got the puck he was moving with speed already.

As an example, during a regroup Granlund would take the 4 or 5 extra strides and cross overs to build up speed so that when he received the puck he was already moving forward through the neutral zone rather than gliding or catching passes flat footed.

This allowed him to play pretty fast even though he was an average skater at best. Granlund (the wing version) was also very good in the corners. I think Rossi, to me, seems like he's more able to, as a center, get to all of the areas on the ice that a center needs to get to.

I also think Rossi is stronger than Granlund on his skates and can shield off players better. I don't think that as a puck handler Rossi is as good at Granlund at playing fast because of working without the puck in areas like I mentioned above to maximize his skating ability.

He's a lot better at doing this then he was in previous years. You can actually see this in this NHL edge data:

NHL EDGE Puck and Player Tracking Statistics - Skaters

NHL EDGE Puck and Player Tracking Statistics for skaters including skating speed, skating distance, shot speed, shot location, and zone time.

edge.nhl.com

Rossi has no 22+mph speed bursts (below 50th percentile), but he's in the 70 and 80 percentile range for 18-20 and 20-22mph speed bursts. This means he's playing fast even if he's not an elite skater.