POISED FOR SUCCESS

A product of the U.S. National Team and University of Notre Dame hockey programs, defenseman Robbie Russo is proving to be a quick study at the pro game.

Story and photo by Mark Newman

As the holder of a degree in sociology, Robbie Russo might argue against the idea that he was destined to become a hockey player.

Destiny is the idea that some hidden power controls what happens in the future. Sociology, on the other hand, argues that human behavior is not so simple – actions are consequentially complex due to the convoluted clutter of theoretical paradigms and social responses that are retroactively influential.

In other words, it’s more complicated.

Nobody in Russo’s family played hockey, so the bloodlines that direct some players toward the sport were absent. Growing up in Westmont, Ill., a southwest suburb of Chicago, Russo might just as easily have become a baseball player, which was the other sport he played as a youth.

His neighbors played roller hockey, and when he enjoyed the open skates that he attended with his family, he started gravitating to the game on ice. He was a defenseman from the very beginning, although he is hard-pressed to know the reason for it.

The fact is he loved the sport, and by high school he had embraced the game of hockey. At the age of 16, he moved to Ann Arbor to take part in USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program (NTDP), a step that put him squarely on a path to what was becoming a dream to play in the NHL someday.

Russo believes his participation in NTDP was highly influential in regards to his career aspirations, and the significance of getting the opportunity to represent the Stars and Stripes on a world stage can hardly be overstated.

“It’s supposed to be the best guys in your age group, so practices were really hard,” Russo said. “You’re going, going, going every day, and traveling internationally can be a little crazy, but for me it was definitely a lot of fun.”

Russo and his teammates went to Europe five times: Sweden, Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia twice. International play helped build his confidence. “It’s huge to be able to play against some of the best players from Canada, Sweden, Russia and all of the other countries,” Russo said. “To be able to see how you stack up against them at such a young age is awesome.”

Meanwhile, the endless practices helped fuel a sort of internal competition among the NTDP attendees, who learned to bond during lengthy sessions in the weight room as well as the classroom, where they were taught how to build the kind of character and civility that does not always come naturally to teenagers.

“They talked a lot about professionalism and how to conduct yourself on and off the ice,” Russo said. “Working hard in practice is something that everybody preaches, but they really focused on off-ice habits like weight training and workouts. Away from the rink, they want to keep you right.”

Working hard was not a problem for Russo. His parents, Rob and Debra Russo, had taught him and his two sisters, Renee and Olivia, the importance of putting forth your best effort. He knew from watching his dad work in the family’s wholesale meat business in Alsip and from the labor of his mom as an accountant that a half effort was hardly better than no effort at all.

So there was never any question of going to college, spurning any suggestion of taking the junior hockey route instead. Even though he was not the best student, Russo had only one destination in mind: the University of Notre Dame.

He was drawn to South Bend because the coach there was Jeff Jackson, who had rebuilt the Fighting Irish after several stops in the junior, college and pro ranks. Earlier in his coaching career, Jackson had led Lake Superior State University to two national titles before leaving that school to become the senior director of the newly founded U.S. Junior National Team.

“I committed to Notre Dame before the national program because of his connections,” Russo said. “It was an easier transition for me because he had the same ideals and preached the same message as we heard in Ann Arbor.”

As a freshman, Russo played in all 40 games. “It was definitely cool to play right away,” he said. “We had a really good team with a lot of good players, but we struggled as a team that year.”

Russo, meanwhile, was selected to the CCHA All-Rookie Team and was named his school’s rookie of the year. He loved being on the Notre Dame campus and quickly became ensconced in the aura and mystique of the school.

“Football definitely runs the show there, but if you do well, the fans always come out,” Russo said about playing in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus. “We had a brand new rink when I got there, so we always drew pretty well. We were on NBC Sports, too, so we got some of the spotlight.”

During his sophomore season, Russo again did not miss a game, playing in all 41 contests and finishing second in scoring among all CCHA defensemen. His play improved and so did his team’s fortunes, as Notre Dame won the conference championship.

Everything was moving in the the right direction until his junior season when he hit a speed bump. He was declared academically ineligible for the second semester after posting a failing grade in a sociology class. Although he would later retake the class and earn a passing grade, the damage was done.

“I put it on myself. I felt like I had let a lot of people down. That was the worst part,” Russo recalled. “I felt like I had let down my teammates, my coaches and my family.”

Still permitted to practice with the team, Russo was determined to make the most of his suspension. “When it happened, I had no choice but to make sure I had a good senior season,” he said. That meant improving himself not only on the ice but also in the classroom. He began skating seven days a week and working out four days a week, and he was hitting the books with a vengeance. “During that time, I really got better as a player, a person and a student, too,” he said.

His newly found focus was not lost on his coaches or teammates, and he was named captain for his senior season in South Bend. “I definitely matured a lot as a player while at Notre Dame and I think that’s when things started to take off for me,” he said. “Looking back, it was definitely an experience I was lucky to have.”

Russo was ready for the pros. During his college years, he figured his future was in New York. He was the fourth choice (95th overall) of the Islanders in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, but although he attended the team’s development camps, he never signed with the NHL club.

The end result was that Russo became a free agent last August, and when the Red Wings offered him a contract, he jumped at the opportunity. Fate might have had Russo signing with the backyard Blackhawks in Chicago, but he had other ideas.

“I liked their history,” Russo said, explaining his decision to choose the Red Wings. “They’ve been developing guys and making the playoffs for the past 25 years. At the time, I knew Blash (Jeff Blashill) was going to be the coach in Detroit and I had heard great things about him, so I thought it was all good.”

Attending the Red Wings’ camps for the first time, Russo had to find his bearings among a group of guys who had been working out together for a number of years. “There was definitely a little bit of an adjustment period,” he said. “The speed of the pro game is different, but it only takes a couple of games to get used to it. Adjusting to new surroundings and new teammates takes a little longer.”

Russo stayed close to Red Wings center Riley Sheahan, who had been a teammate at Notre Dame during his freshman season. “We were in school together for a year, so I knew him pretty well,” Russo said. “He helped me out a ton.”

Sheahan told him good things about Grand Rapids, where Russo got off to a bit of a slow start, recording just a single point in the team’s first 11 games, four of which he did not play. Once he found his bearings, he became a model of consistency, registering 13 points in the next 14 contests, including a seven-game point streak.

It’s not the points, however, that excite head coach Todd Nelson about Russo’s potential.

“He’s a skilled player who sees the ice well, but the most impressive thing is, as a first-year player, he has a lot of poise,” Nelson said. “When he is being pressured by the defense, he has a knack for being able to make a play while feeling that pressure.”

Indeed, through the first half of the season, Russo was the Griffins’ best plus-minus player. Through his first 31 games, Russo was plus-22.

“I try to provide offense from the back end, but you have to take care of your own end or you probably won’t play,” Russo said.

Being a healthy scratch is not something that he cares to contemplate, so Russo has been listening and learning, paying attention to teammates like Nathan Paetsch and Brian Lashoff, who have nearly 300 games of NHL experience between them.

With the recent arrival of Red Wings veteran Jakub Kindl on the Grand Rapids blueline, that number is now nearly doubled, and Russo will continue to be all eyes and ears. After all, coming from Notre Dame, he has learned his lessons well.

A product of the U.S. National Team and University of Notre Dame hockey programs, defenseman Robbie Russo is proving to be a quick study at the pro game.

Story and photo by Mark Newman

As the holder of a degree in sociology, Robbie Russo might argue against the idea that he was destined to become a hockey player.

Destiny is the idea that some hidden power controls what happens in the future. Sociology, on the other hand, argues that human behavior is not so simple – actions are consequentially complex due to the convoluted clutter of theoretical paradigms and social responses that are retroactively influential.

In other words, it’s more complicated.

Nobody in Russo’s family played hockey, so the bloodlines that direct some players toward the sport were absent. Growing up in Westmont, Ill., a southwest suburb of Chicago, Russo might just as easily have become a baseball player, which was the other sport he played as a youth.

His neighbors played roller hockey, and when he enjoyed the open skates that he attended with his family, he started gravitating to the game on ice. He was a defenseman from the very beginning, although he is hard-pressed to know the reason for it.

The fact is he loved the sport, and by high school he had embraced the game of hockey. At the age of 16, he moved to Ann Arbor to take part in USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program (NTDP), a step that put him squarely on a path to what was becoming a dream to play in the NHL someday.

Russo believes his participation in NTDP was highly influential in regards to his career aspirations, and the significance of getting the opportunity to represent the Stars and Stripes on a world stage can hardly be overstated.

“It’s supposed to be the best guys in your age group, so practices were really hard,” Russo said. “You’re going, going, going every day, and traveling internationally can be a little crazy, but for me it was definitely a lot of fun.”

Russo and his teammates went to Europe five times: Sweden, Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia twice. International play helped build his confidence. “It’s huge to be able to play against some of the best players from Canada, Sweden, Russia and all of the other countries,” Russo said. “To be able to see how you stack up against them at such a young age is awesome.”

Meanwhile, the endless practices helped fuel a sort of internal competition among the NTDP attendees, who learned to bond during lengthy sessions in the weight room as well as the classroom, where they were taught how to build the kind of character and civility that does not always come naturally to teenagers.

“They talked a lot about professionalism and how to conduct yourself on and off the ice,” Russo said. “Working hard in practice is something that everybody preaches, but they really focused on off-ice habits like weight training and workouts. Away from the rink, they want to keep you right.”

Working hard was not a problem for Russo. His parents, Rob and Debra Russo, had taught him and his two sisters, Renee and Olivia, the importance of putting forth your best effort. He knew from watching his dad work in the family’s wholesale meat business in Alsip and from the labor of his mom as an accountant that a half effort was hardly better than no effort at all.

So there was never any question of going to college, spurning any suggestion of taking the junior hockey route instead. Even though he was not the best student, Russo had only one destination in mind: the University of Notre Dame.

He was drawn to South Bend because the coach there was Jeff Jackson, who had rebuilt the Fighting Irish after several stops in the junior, college and pro ranks. Earlier in his coaching career, Jackson had led Lake Superior State University to two national titles before leaving that school to become the senior director of the newly founded U.S. Junior National Team.

“I committed to Notre Dame before the national program because of his connections,” Russo said. “It was an easier transition for me because he had the same ideals and preached the same message as we heard in Ann Arbor.”

As a freshman, Russo played in all 40 games. “It was definitely cool to play right away,” he said. “We had a really good team with a lot of good players, but we struggled as a team that year.”

Russo, meanwhile, was selected to the CCHA All-Rookie Team and was named his school’s rookie of the year. He loved being on the Notre Dame campus and quickly became ensconced in the aura and mystique of the school.

“Football definitely runs the show there, but if you do well, the fans always come out,” Russo said about playing in the shadow of Touchdown Jesus. “We had a brand new rink when I got there, so we always drew pretty well. We were on NBC Sports, too, so we got some of the spotlight.”

During his sophomore season, Russo again did not miss a game, playing in all 41 contests and finishing second in scoring among all CCHA defensemen. His play improved and so did his team’s fortunes, as Notre Dame won the conference championship.

Everything was moving in the the right direction until his junior season when he hit a speed bump. He was declared academically ineligible for the second semester after posting a failing grade in a sociology class. Although he would later retake the class and earn a passing grade, the damage was done.

“I put it on myself. I felt like I had let a lot of people down. That was the worst part,” Russo recalled. “I felt like I had let down my teammates, my coaches and my family.”

Still permitted to practice with the team, Russo was determined to make the most of his suspension. “When it happened, I had no choice but to make sure I had a good senior season,” he said. That meant improving himself not only on the ice but also in the classroom. He began skating seven days a week and working out four days a week, and he was hitting the books with a vengeance. “During that time, I really got better as a player, a person and a student, too,” he said.

His newly found focus was not lost on his coaches or teammates, and he was named captain for his senior season in South Bend. “I definitely matured a lot as a player while at Notre Dame and I think that’s when things started to take off for me,” he said. “Looking back, it was definitely an experience I was lucky to have.”

Russo was ready for the pros. During his college years, he figured his future was in New York. He was the fourth choice (95th overall) of the Islanders in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, but although he attended the team’s development camps, he never signed with the NHL club.

The end result was that Russo became a free agent last August, and when the Red Wings offered him a contract, he jumped at the opportunity. Fate might have had Russo signing with the backyard Blackhawks in Chicago, but he had other ideas.

“I liked their history,” Russo said, explaining his decision to choose the Red Wings. “They’ve been developing guys and making the playoffs for the past 25 years. At the time, I knew Blash (Jeff Blashill) was going to be the coach in Detroit and I had heard great things about him, so I thought it was all good.”

Attending the Red Wings’ camps for the first time, Russo had to find his bearings among a group of guys who had been working out together for a number of years. “There was definitely a little bit of an adjustment period,” he said. “The speed of the pro game is different, but it only takes a couple of games to get used to it. Adjusting to new surroundings and new teammates takes a little longer.”

Russo stayed close to Red Wings center Riley Sheahan, who had been a teammate at Notre Dame during his freshman season. “We were in school together for a year, so I knew him pretty well,” Russo said. “He helped me out a ton.”

Sheahan told him good things about Grand Rapids, where Russo got off to a bit of a slow start, recording just a single point in the team’s first 11 games, four of which he did not play. Once he found his bearings, he became a model of consistency, registering 13 points in the next 14 contests, including a seven-game point streak.

It’s not the points, however, that excite head coach Todd Nelson about Russo’s potential.

“He’s a skilled player who sees the ice well, but the most impressive thing is, as a first-year player, he has a lot of poise,” Nelson said. “When he is being pressured by the defense, he has a knack for being able to make a play while feeling that pressure.”

Indeed, through the first half of the season, Russo was the Griffins’ best plus-minus player. Through his first 31 games, Russo was plus-22.

“I try to provide offense from the back end, but you have to take care of your own end or you probably won’t play,” Russo said.

Being a healthy scratch is not something that he cares to contemplate, so Russo has been listening and learning, paying attention to teammates like Nathan Paetsch and Brian Lashoff, who have nearly 300 games of NHL experience between them.

With the recent arrival of Red Wings veteran Jakub Kindl on the Grand Rapids blueline, that number is now nearly doubled, and Russo will continue to be all eyes and ears. After all, coming from Notre Dame, he has learned his lessons well.