CALLER-TIMES INTERACTIVE: NEWS

Wednesday, Oct. 28, 1998

IceRays `Robo' not just the guy next door

Center/forward named WPHL player of week

By MARK BUTTON
Staff Writer

   If you didn't know any better you might guess wrong on Chris Robertson.
   He's got the college degree, the four-handicap golf game and a career playing professional sports. Mix that in with the blond hair and blue eyes on the 6-foot, 190-pound frame and you have the guy central casting might have figured for, say, an All-American boy character in an old Seinfeld episode.
   Except for one little detail.
   "I'm from Canada, buddy," he said.
   Not that there's anything wrong with that.
   Robertson, from Calgary, Alberta, was named the Western Professional Hockey League's Player of the Week for Oct. 19-25. In three games last week, he scored five goals and had seven assists. His season total of 15 total points is the league high, as are his 10 assists. Robertson - teammates call him "Robo" - will try to add to those totals against El Paso (2-2) in a 7:05 p.m. game today at Memorial Coliseum.
   "Chris is always looking to dish the puck to me or Bummer (Geoff Bumstead) if we're open," linemate Lorne Toews said. "He is always in a good position to get us the puck or receive it himself. He sees the ice really well, and he's one of those players that helps you earn points while he earns them himself."
   His unselfishness on the ice is just a reflection.
   "I think (the entire line), should all share it," Robertson said of the award. "It's a team game. It's definitely an honor, though."
   The IceRays first line - Robertson, Toews and Bumstead - has put up 33 points this year, second in the league to only one other line: the IceRays second line of Craig Coxe, Vadim Sharapov and Pavel Evstigneev, which has accounted for 34 points.
   "I'm really fortunate to be part of a great line," Bumstead said. "Chris just sets everything up so nicely."
   Robertson's athletic resume includes experience in soccer, lacrosse, football, baseball and basketball - all before he turned 15 years old. That's when he began concentrating solely on his two loves in life: hockey and golf. Oh, except for the two years he taught tennis classes in college.
   "Hockey was my winter sport," he said. "In the summer it was mostly golf and hiking."
   Robertson's dreams of playing in the NHL were nearly realized when he attended the 1989 Minnesota North Stars training camp. He survived the first few cuts, but failed to make the final roster.
   "Things went well for a while," he said. "But it's a game of numbers and it didn't quite work out."
   Soon after, Robertson joined the Greensboro Monarchs of the newly formed East Coast Hockey League. He led the team to the league championship with 56 points in 47 games. He was 18 years old and he never figured on a minor-league career that would lead him to live in places like Albuquerque, N.M., Tulsa, Okla., and Corpus Christi.
   "At that time, there were only six or eight minor league teams outside of the IHL and AHL," Robertson said. "Now there's 60 or 70. So you can understand why I didn't think I would be living in the States that long."
   Now a nine-year veteran of professional hockey, he said he is enjoying his time in Corpus Christi - it's conducive to his golf game - but like any red-blooded Canadian living south of the border, he misses home.
   "I miss my family, I miss the mountains," he said. "I miss certain restaurants, like the Barley Mill in Calgary. It's an English pub and the chicken pot pie is pretty darn good."
   An assistant captain for the IceRays, teammates say Robertson's subtle sense of humor and leadership qualities add character and class to the Corpus Christi locker room.
   "He keeps things light to an extent, but he also knows we're here to win games," Toews said. "If you're looking like you're down, he's the one to come by and say something nice to you."
   Outside of Wayne Gretzky and a few others, there's not a whole lot of room for nice guys in hockey. Robertson knows this, and said he can play rough when it's necessary.
   "He's not really a nice guy out on the ice, anyway," fellow forward Mike Tomlinson said. "He's pretty dirty with his stick. You don't really see it out there; he hacks and whacks pretty good."
   Under the surface, maybe this isn't the guy from next door after all.
   Not that there's anything wrong with that.
   

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