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Player Discussion Marco Rossi

57special said:
Either Boldy or Kap. He has history with Boldy...they look great together, whereas Kaprizov is more of a mystery. I think Johansson and his speed might be the perfect match for Boldy and Rossi.

Kap tends to dominate the puck, and Rossi does too when he's at his best. If Kap is going to play with him he needs to convert to being more of a shooter.

Having two good lines would also take the focus away from Kap.
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That's why I wanna see more of Rossi & Kap. I think they could benefit great from each other. Both can set up plays, both can finish. I just want to see if they can build a connection.
 
57special said:
Either Boldy or Kap. He has history with Boldy...they look great together, whereas Kaprizov is more of a mystery. I think Johansson and his speed might be the perfect match for Boldy and Rossi.

Kap tends to dominate the puck, and Rossi does too when he's at his best. If Kap is going to play with him he needs to convert to being more of a shooter.

Having two good lines would also take the focus away from Kap.


Your typos are awesome.
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Fat thumbs
 
57special said:
Either Boldy or Kap. He has history with Boldy...they look great together, whereas Kaprizov is more of a mystery. I think Johansson and his speed might be the perfect match for Boldy and Rossi.

Kap tends to dominate the puck, and Rossi does too when he's at his best. If Kap is going to play with him he needs to convert to being more of a shooter.

Having two good lines would also take the focus away from Kap.


Your typos are awesome.
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I think Rossi's possession game is why they'd be good. Especially if that whole line stays unchanged you have two fairly strong possession players with Kaprizov who is himself a strong possession player when he's not trying to do stupid stuff.

If you spend 45 seconds in the offensive zone 3-4 shifts every period you don't need to worry about being a dedicated shooter. None of them are afraid to shoot even if they do end up overpassing a bit some times. The long offensive possession is what they're missing from years prior.
 
Luceni said:
That's why I wanna see more of Rossi & Kap. I think they could benefit great from each other. Both can set up plays, both can finish. I just want to see if they can build a connection.
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But Boldy and Rossi already have a connection?
 
Parax said:
I think Rossi's possession game is why they'd be good. Especially if that whole line stays unchanged you have two fairly strong possession players with Kaprizov who is himself a strong possession player when he's not trying to do stupid stuff.

If you spend 45 seconds in the offensive zone 3-4 shifts every period you don't need to worry about being a dedicated shooter. None of them are afraid to shoot even if they do end up overpassing a bit some times. The long offensive possession is what they're missing from years prior.
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Yes, I don't understand the original post. You want multiple strong-possession players playing together and sustaining possession for long stretches. This is an additive thing. Kap is a 40+ goal scorer what we are talking about in terms of not being a finisher. This is putting arguably our 3 best-possession players and finishers on the same line together.

The biggest problem and problem that needs to be solved first before addressing other problems is the lack of sustained zone time from Kaprizov. The Wild may have other problems but if they can't figure out how to generate consistent production with their best player dominating offensive zone time then fixing the rest of the problems won't matter.

The reason Kap's point production isn't there is because he isn't spending enough time in the offensive zone and when he is he isn't spending enough time in high danger areas. Giving him linemates who can help him do this is the path forward.
 
57special said:
But Boldy and Rossi already have a connection?
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To be honest, I don't care who Rossi plays with as long as he gets a legitimate shot at playong top 6 minutes. Boldy is fine as his linemate as well.

a year ago a dominant Boldy and a weak Rossi had a connection. But Rossi isn't the player he was last october anymore. Rossi's skating and confidence-level has largely improved. His offensive game could fit better with Kap playing style if he gets the chance to center Kaps line.

Ek & Hartman as 2C/3C is pure luxury for any team, if Rossi runs away with the 1C spot. The lines would look more balanced that way.
 
Luceni said:
To be honest, I don't care who Rossi plays with as long as he gets a legitimate shot at playong top 6 minutes. Boldy is fine as his linemate as well.

a year ago a dominant Boldy and a weak Rossi had a connection. But Rossi isn't the player he was last october anymore. Rossi's skating and confidence-level has largely improved. His offensive game could fit better with Kap playing style if he gets the chance to center Kaps line.

Ek & Hartman as 2C/3C is pure luxury for any team, if Rossi runs away with the 1C spot. The lines would look more balanced that way.
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Yes, Ek is great and Hartman outplays his contract and he's solid but if Rossi shows he's the best offensive center on the team that's a feature and not a bug and doesn't mean anything about whether or not Ek and Hartman are good. This actually allows us to have a chance at better production from this position than many teams we play for the first time well probably ever.

If Rossi is the best offensive center, he should play with Kap or Boldy at a minimum and we should invest time into seeing how he works with both players.
 
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If Spurgeon is close, and we end up with the below I will feel orders of magnitude more comfortable with our D pairings:

Brodin - Faber
Middleton - Spurgeon
Hunt - Addison

I could also sub ROR in for Hunt if its not a fit, but this is much more flexible, and a lot easier to protect the bottom pair matchups.

Edit: Whoops, forgot this was the Rossi specific topic. I will just add then that "he good."
 
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north21 said:
Still kind of shocked this actually happened, a rossi boldy kap line could be dominant for a long time. Just imagine when the kids start hitting their prime.
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I'm not sure if others think this way, but I think with lines in hockey for the most part any combination will get stale with enough time.

There's a lot of contextual team factors that change. Then there's also a chemistry thing where I think a lot of times something that starts off great can iterate and start to not work well.

I'm hopeful this line combo ends up working well, but this line combo working well together for this team in this time given the contextual factors around the team doesn't mean this has to be this way forever and it's okay if that's the case.

This line could be great and it could become true that it makes sense to have a Johansson - Rossi - Boldy line later in the season and that's okay too.
 
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RossiSaveUs said:

Deano elevating Rossi to first line, first power play, and allegedly scratching Merrill for Hunt next game. If I ever see him in person I’m gonna give him a big smooch
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5 forward PP unit's are fun. Hopefully they are a lot less static in their positions instead of just having a forward play the point essentially.

I do wonder if Merrill goes on waivers when Spurgeon comes back. I like the guy, I do not like the player and that's 1.15 in cap space they could use.
 
Nino Noderreiter said:
I'm not sure if others think this way, but I think with lines in hockey for the most part any combination will get stale with enough time.
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For sure, any good coach should have some kind of backup plan or plans when things don't work. We haven't really had that in the recent past.
 
Nino Noderreiter said:
I'm not sure if others think this way, but I think with lines in hockey for the most part any combination will get stale with enough time.

There's a lot of contextual team factors that change. Then there's also a chemistry thing where I think a lot of times something that starts off great can iterate and start to not work well.

I'm hopeful this line combo ends up working well, but this line combo working well together for this team in this time given the contextual factors around the team doesn't mean this has to be this way forever and it's okay if that's the case.

This line could be great and it could become true that it makes sense to have a Johansson - Rossi - Boldy line later in the season and that's okay too.
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Exactly. I'm not sure I've ever seen a line that lasts more than 3 years and remains as effective as when it started. Usually one of the players will start to fall off or the line's style will slowly change and become ineffective, at which point a shakeup is needed. Enjoy the line while it works, and then break it up and reform the pieces when it stops working. A coach should never become overly attached to his lines.
 
Good to finally see Zuccarello being moved out of the most premier spot in the lineup in favor of guys that actually deserve it
 
BagHead said:
Exactly. I'm not sure I've ever seen a line that lasts more than 3 years and remains as effective as when it started. Usually one of the players will start to fall off or the line's style will slowly change and become ineffective, at which point a shakeup is needed. Enjoy the line while it works, and then break it up and reform the pieces when it stops working. A coach should never become overly attached to his lines.
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Vegas top line of Smith - Karlsson - Marchessault comes to mind. They got together the first year Vegas played and had huge success and culminated with a cup, so 5-6 years or so until Smith was traded to Pens.
Karlsson as of now is Vegas leading scorer, on a point streak of 8 games and was clearly the driving force of that line.
 
Btw, I don’t know about the Calder. I think if Bedard is even close to the next guy that he’ll win since it’s the media that votes in it. That being said, I think Rossi has a legitimate chance of winning a trophy the Wild have plenty of experience bringing home: the Masterton.
 
57special said:
There was one play where the puck was dumped in and Rossi raced to get to the puck at the same time as his larger opponent. They came together, and the other guy fell back. That NEVER would've happened last year, even in the AHL. Huge, huge difference in strength, less but significant increase in speed, and a corresponding improvement in mindset.
Put that together with his skill, offensive imagination, and responsible two way play and we've got a winner.

Only thing that really sucks are his FO's, but you could say the same about the entire team. This might be the worst FO team I've ever seen. It kills us on special teams.
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This team has sucked at FOs ever since Koivu left. He was critical to winning defensive zone faceoffs, especially on a PK. That’s the one skill that they need Ek to improve on, which he has year-over-year. Hopefully Rossi has a similar (but faster) trajectory.

Team FO% on the PK is 24%. In the playoffs it was 30%. It’s an overlooked stat that really doesn’t get talked about enough.
 
RossiSaveUs said:
Btw, I don’t know about the Calder. I think if Bedard is even close to the next guy that he’ll win since it’s the media that votes in it. That being said, I think Rossi has a legitimate chance of winning a trophy the Wild have plenty of experience bringing home: the Masterton.
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That Calder race looks crazy in the early goings, there are like 9 guys who have a fairly equal chance to win it (minus the Bedard hype). I'm assuming they'll separate themselves out over the course of the year, but if not there'll be a very fractured vote for that trophy.
 
Spurgeon said:
This team has sucked at FOs ever since Koivu left. He was critical to winning defensive zone faceoffs, especially on a PK. That’s the one skill that they need Ek to improve on, which he has year-over-year. Hopefully Rossi has a similar (but faster) trajectory.

Team FO% on the PK is 24%. In the playoffs it was 30%. It’s an overlooked stat that really doesn’t get talked about enough.
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Ek needs to start spitting on his gloves before faceoffs.
 
Spurgeon said:
This team has sucked at FOs ever since Koivu left. He was critical to winning defensive zone faceoffs, especially on a PK. That’s the one skill that they need Ek to improve on, which he has year-over-year. Hopefully Rossi has a similar (but faster) trajectory.

Team FO% on the PK is 24%. In the playoffs it was 30%. It’s an overlooked stat that really doesn’t get talked about enough.
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Haula was pretty good, too.

In general, people don't think FO's are a big deal, and I'd agree when it comes to neutral zone FO's, or maybe when the other team is sticking their average FO guy out against us. When it kills you is at either end in a close game, when they stick out their best guy who is close to 60%, and we send out our best, who is 46%. Remember, that 46% is against everyone, not top guys, so you can argue that the averages will be further skewed in that situation.

So, late in close games, special teams, 3 v 3, losing FO's puts you at an automatic disadvantage.

It's not just about the C's, either. A lot of guys get kicked out of the circle these days so non C's are taking FO's and losing them, and winning FO's is also about the wings not fighting for, and winning 50/50 pucks.

In general, we are, and have been a mess as far as FO's for a long time. Does anyone even coach it on the team?
 
Face off wins are almost entirely subjective in my eyes, the amount of face offs with clear winners and uncontested possession that can be directly tied to the Centerman is a very small portion of the sample size. Until the stat gets advanced and tracked in a consistent manner, I personally don’t see much value in it. Now having said that, the eye test agrees that we do lose an inordinate amount of clean draws.
 
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