Robins shares Blades ties with his father
The goalie stick couldn’t have fallen any further from the tree.
Tristen Robins — a rookie forward on the Saskatoon Blades — wanted to be a pad-strapping goaltender just like his dad, former Blades goalie Trevor Robins.
His dad, apparently, had other ideas.
“Actually, growing up, I always wanted to be a goalie,” says Robins, whose Blades resume Western Hockey League action at home Thursday (7 p.m., Sasktel Centre) against the rival Prince Albert Raiders.
“But it was not in his mind.” During his first year of hockey, Robins asked his dad if he could give goaltending a try.
He was denied.
Call it goalie interference at its finest.
“He told me I had to work on my skating and then, every year after that, he kind of made up another reason why I couldn’t go play goalie,” recalled Robins.
“I just kind of gave up on that. If I was a goalie, I’d definitely be in a different spot today.”
Today, the speedy Robins, who was acquired from the Regina Pats prior to the trade deadline last season, has six goals and four assists in 35 games.
Robins, who turned 17 last month, is a 5-foot-10, 171-pound centreman who hails from Brandon, Man., where his dad grew up and finished his junior hockey career after three seasons with the Blades.
The year Tristen was born was the same year that his dad quit playing hockey professionally. Trevor Robins had spent nine seasons in the professional ranks, with stints in the International Hockey League, Central Hockey League, East Coast Hockey League and British Ice Hockey League.
“I’ve seen a couple of videos — but mostly of him in goalie fights,” noted Robins, who hasn’t been in any WHL fights himself, but he is slowly adapting to the rigours of major junior hockey.
“It’s a bit of an adjustment at the start of the year, but I’m starting to come into my own and I’m feeling comfortable there. Every game, every day my comfort level increases. I’m just hoping that stays like that and my production does, as well.”
The Blades sit somewhat comfortably in second place in the WHL’S East Division — and tied for third overall in the league — with a 21-10-4-0 record and 46 points.
“We’ve had a massive first half in the league and I think it’s only going to go up from there and I think we’ll do even better,” said Robins, who spent the holiday break in the Brandon area. “I’m just excited to get right back at it.”
Mitch Love is also settling in during his first year as Blades’ head coach. He has watched Robins develop into a key role on the team’s third line.
“Tristen, you see small signs of him coming along here as a young hockey player and starting to understand the grinds of the Western Hockey League season and the demands,” said Love.
“I really like him at centre ice. His best asset is his skating when he’s moving — and in our system, you have to move if you want to be a centreman for us. It’s always nice for those kids that come along and then get awarded offensively. It gives them some confidence and we all know that this generation breeds confidence.”
For Robins, it all starts with his skating.
“I went to a lot of camps in the summer, a lot of edge-work schools, and that’s really helped me out,” he noted.
And there were never any goalie schools, that’s for sure.
His dad made sure of that.