Robbie Russo makes NHL debut

[yave1964]

  My favorite Griffin was finally recalled for yesterdays momentous struggle against the Leafs, defenseman Robbie Russo finally made his long anticipated (by me anyway) NHL debut.

  I like Sproul and feel that his offense has been underutilized because the team has no concept of an identity, Oullet is settling in nicely into a middle pair guy, Jensen is playing his heart out and has energy to burn but lets face it, his enthusiasm is covering up for a lack of talent. Marchenko scored a goal against us last night to drive a dagger in for the Wings letting him go but he is a C-minus or D-plus player at best.

 

  Quite frankly, Russo is the best of the lot and in my view it is not close. I am not certain what kept him down at GR for so long, it is not lack of talent, maybe he has chronic halitosis or something.

 

  He was a 4th round pick of the Islanders who didn't sign with the team and instead stayed at Notre Dame for four seasons on of which he was a teammate of Riley Sheahan but I will not hold it against him. His Senior year he was the Fighting Irish second leading scorer and team captain and then signed with the Wings for the 2015-16 season as a free agent. Truthfully when his name showed up on the Griffins roster I had no clue who he was last year, just fodder for the real prospects to play with/against is how I pictured it and the Wings probably felt so too. Instead he has been amazing for two years in a row. Last year he led the league with an eye popping plus 40 and added 39 points in 71 games, playing extremely well at both ends of the ice. He was voted to the All AHL Rookie team by his peers and the leagues coaches and his leadership skills were gushed about by his teammates all year. Russo also was voted to the second All Star team. He was teamed for most of the season with Sproul forming one of the AHL's most dangerous combos as both would rush the puck with Sproul secure in the knowledge that if he got caught in too deep (which he did quite a bit, his aggressive nature sometimes got the best of him) Russo would be able to get back and slow two on ones until he would get help. Late in the year Sproul was moved to a different pairing and Russo was allowed to roam free, teaming with Oullet and the two of them clicked like they were made for each other, Oullet stayed home and Russo was almost like a fourth forward but still responsible in his own zone. The plan is to pair Oullet and Russo together (Sproul is out for the year) because they match up so well. "We have some pretty good chemistry and know each other well so I think that will help," said Russo, who played with eight current Red Wings while in Grand Rapids. He almost certainly would have made the first team AHL all star team this year if not for the recall.

  This season he leads the Griffins in plus/minus at plus 14 and has 31 points in 56 games and is the heart and soul of the team. AHL veterans such as Eric Tangradi and Matthew Ford gush about his vision but also about his leadership.

  He is 24 so certainly not a kid, he is too good for the AHL but some guys such as TJ Brennan and Matt Taormina and others are a step too slow for the NHL but can seemingly score at will against AHL competition from the back end and so stick around forever but that is not what I think Russo is. I am not saying he is Lidstrom, lol, but I see him as an NHL player, a guy who can move the puck and score a bit and is responsible in his own zone, leadership qualities, smart, does not rattle easily and has a bit of feistiness in his game. I would compare him to David Savard with the Bluejackets as a player which is a compliment.

  Rooting for ya Robbie. The Griffins are going to miss you on the back end but the Griffins loss is the Wings gain.

[SpikeDDS]

28 minutes ago, yave1964 said:

I am not certain what kept him down at GR for so long, it is not lack of talent, maybe he has chronic halitosis or something.

 

C'mon, you know EXACTLY why he wasn't brought up until now--reticence to bring up young talent until they HAVE to. Granted, that has changed somewhat this year, again because it HAD to, but it has changed. So why kept him down? Because of waivers. Not that they would have to waive HIM, but they'd have to waive someone else if they kept him up. We had already lost too many players to waivers, and to be honest, even though THEY didn't make their decision that the season was lost until LONG after reality and you and I did, bringing him up this season would not have saved the season.

 

Moving forward, though, they have no real excuse for not bringing him up and keeping him here.

[yave1964]

51 minutes ago, SpikeDDS said:

 

C'mon, you know EXACTLY why he wasn't brought up until now--reticence to bring up young talent until they HAVE to. Granted, that has changed somewhat this year, again because it HAD to, but it has changed. So why kept him down? Because of waivers. Not that they would have to waive HIM, but they'd have to waive someone else if they kept him up. We had already lost too many players to waivers, and to be honest, even though THEY didn't make their decision that the season was lost until LONG after reality and you and I did, bringing him up this season would not have saved the season.

 

Moving forward, though, they have no real excuse for not bringing him up and keeping him here.

Agreed, Russo should have made the team this year out of camp but we had to many non waiver exempt defenseman and would have lost one if Russo had stuck so off to Grand Rapids he went. He has actually gotten better this year, his confidence level has improved so in truth he might have been better off down there anyway but he was clearly one of our top seven d-men coming out of camp and he lost a year because of poor contract management by the Wings.