The generation gap on the Wild’s new-look top line is apparent during their strategy sessions on the bench, with Gen Z’s Marco Rossi and Matt Boldy using the iPad more than millennial Mats Zuccarello, who has wielded a whiteboard.
“That’s old school,” said Zuccarello, who recently scribbled in-game for his linemates like a teacher instructing students. “I said, ‘You go here, and then I’m always open.’ Throw the iPad away.”
Both study habits, however, seem to be working because when they take to the ice, they’re like three peas in a pod, with Rossi headlining the Wild offense while Kirill Kaprizov is injured.
“It doesn’t really surprise any of us,” Boldy said. “It’s kind of what we expect from him. He’s really grown into that player where he wants the puck and wants to be on the ice. He’s always been like that but when you get the chance and it starts going your way and you have that confidence, it’s a different type of game and it’s not an easy game to play, either.
“It’s a lot of pressure on yourself, but he’s been awesome and it’s nothing that surprises us.”
In the five games the Wild have played without Kaprizov, who hasn’t resumed skating since exiting the lineup to address a lingering lower-body injury, Rossi leads the team with nine points. He was named the NHL’s First Star of the Week after scoring three times and adding five assists in his last three games — what ended up being the CliffsNotes on why Rossi is one of the Wild’s offensive leaders, with or without Kaprizov.
He’s consistently around the net, with both of his goals in the 5-3 win over Nashville last Tuesday coming in tight. The 23-year-old center has a knack for capitalizing in crunch-time; his equalizer in the 4-3 shootout rally against Washington on Thursday was his league-leading third game-tying goal in the final 10 minutes of regulation. But he’s also a playmaker, as evidenced by Rossi’s career-high four-assist effort in the 4-0 shutout of Carolina Saturday.
“[I] told Marco [that] morning, ‘Start passing the puck and stop taking all the glory and just see what happens,” said Zuccarello, who was the beneficiary of those feeds along with Boldy; Zuccarello scored twice vs. the Hurricanes, and Boldy ended a nine-game drought when Rossi sprung him for a breakaway.