From Pasadena Maple Leafs to Toronto Maple Leafs, Nick Robertson’s Hockey Life Comes Full Circle In Hometown
Robertson #Robertson
Having played in parts of four different seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Nick Robertson will finally play in his home town when the club visit the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.
LOS ANGELES — Nick Robertson was eight years old when he last played competitive hockey in his hometown.
On Saturday night, the 21-year-old will do it at the highest level when he suits up for the Toronto Maple Leafs against the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena.
“It’s the biggest one for sure,” Robertson said of Los Angeles being one of five stops on the team’s current five-game road trip.
Earlier on the trip, Robertson’s mother, Mercedes texted Nick some files ahead of the trip. One was a video of Nick skating at Staples Center (the former name of Crypto.com arena) scoring during the intermission of a Kings game.
Another picture foreshadowed Robertson’s NHL career.
“It was the first team I played for, it was actually called the Pasadena Maple Leafs,” Robertson recalled. “I actually played with my sister (Bri) when I was around five or six.
That spurred Robertson’s connection to hockey. The Kings are his hometown team. His father, Hugh had season tickets to Kings games and Nick remembers watching games at the arena and taking in practice at the team’s training facility in nearby El Segundo.
As a kid, he watched Wayne Simmonds play during his time with the Kings.
The two will skate on the same line together on Saturday in a reshuffling of lines.
“When we found out we practicing on the same line, he came up to me and said. ‘It’s just like old times, I used to watch you in this building,’” Simmonds said of Robertson.”
Robertson has a lot of family members expected to take in the weekend of games in Southern California that attendance will be split between games in Los Angeles on Saturday and against the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday.
“He’s excited, you can see it just by talking to him,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said of Robertson. “This will be a big moment for him. You grow up in this area, it’s less common for guys to be playing [at home]. It’s certainly a big moment for he and his family.”
Robertson was called up to the Maple Leafs on Oct. 16 after initially missing the cut right out of training camp, primarily due to salary cap and roster limitations. In four games this season, the 21-year-old has two goals and one assist.
This will be his first game on the third line after playing in the previous four games exclusively with John Tavares and William Nylander. The trio struggled to find their groove in a 4-3 overtime loss to the San Jose Sharks on Thursday. They had a 27 percent expected goals rate, according the NaturalStatTrick.com. The worst of any of the four lines.
“Looking at it with how all the forwards shook out, it was about giving Robertson a different look,” Keefe explained. “Being on the road as much as we have been, that line has been targeted for lots of matchups to play against some of the other team’s best players. So we’re trying to lighten the load there a little bit for him, at the same time, capitalize on the fact that [Alex] Kerfoot is coming off of a good game.”