James Robinson eager to get back on ice with Penn State hockey team

Last season was a tough one for James Robinson.

The junior forward played one game with the Penn State men’s hockey team — actually, just one shift — before sustaining a broken collarbone and sitting out the rest of the season.

When the Nittany Lions hold their first official practice on Saturday, then host Queens College at 1 p.m. Sunday at Pegula Ice Arena for an exhibition, quite possibly no one will be more eager for the game than “Jimmy Pucks”.

“I’m really excited,” Robinson said at the team’s annual preseason media day on Thursday. “It’s been a long time coming.”

The forward Cochrane, Alberta, Canada, had four goals and four assists as a freshman, and was expected to be a much bigger contributor last season. Instead, he took a hard hit in the season opener at Canisius. He said he doesn’t dwell on the play, and he’s not worried about the first hit Sunday or in the season opener next Thursday against St. Lawrence.

Robinson said the process was long, but he forced himself to be upbeat. He wanted teammates to see him staying positive, and in turn their presence perked up his mood.

“It wasn’t easy, especially in the early stages, coming to the rink knowing that you weren’t playing Friday night, Saturday night,” Robinson said. “A characteristic of myself that I take a lot of pride in is just being a positive person. I knew that coming to the rink, I had to put a smile on my face, sometimes it was tough. I just wanted to be a good guy around the guys.”

The attitude left an impression.

“We were worried about him, but every time we would ask about him and meet with him, he was so positive,” coach Guy Gadowsky said. “Just a tremendous guy, probably very similar to what the team saw.”

The extra time last school year helped him do better academically, and to study the game from the sidelines. The way he carried himself also prompted his teammates to pick him as an assistant captain — not bad for a guy who played less than a minute last season.

“He was always very positive in the locker room,” senior captain David Goodwin said. “He was always supportive through the ups and downs of the season.”

Who’s in net?

With the graduation of Matthew Skoff, and Eamon McAdam choosing to sign with the New York Islanders after his junior season, Penn State was left with a major hole to fill in net.

Competing for the job are sophomore Chris Funkey, who saw a handful of minutes but didn’t start a game last season, and freshman Peyton Jones.

While Funkey has a little bit of experience, Gadowsky didn’t name a starter Thursday.

“We support each other either way,” Funkey said. “I think I said this about Matt and Eamon last year, whichever one of them is in net, if Peyton’s in the net, there’s going to be nobody in Pegula who wants them to succeed more than I do.”

Gadowsky said choosing the starter will be based on statistics from games and practices just like last season, looking at wins and losses, save percentages and goals against.

Jones certainly grabs attention right away at 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds. He had a huge growth spurt between his junior and senior years of high school, figuring he shot up about 6-8 inches before heading off to play for the Lincoln Stars in the USHL for two seasons.

Gadowsky also said the team has added a third goalie in junior Matt Ehrlichman, a Bedford native who played the last two seasons for the Icers club program. Ehrlichman is the emergency goalie in case of an injury or other incident.

“We needed that done ahead of time,” Gadowsky said. “We had to make that decision now.”

Doing Goodwin work

In years past, Goodwin has traveled during the summer to Central America and Mexico to help out in communities and hone his Spanish skills. This past summer may have topped all those other trips, spending seven weeks in Cuba.

He had a contact who helped get him into the country, and he jumped at the opportunity to teach English at the Cuban University, and also tutor math to high school students

“It was truly was amazing,” Goodwin said. “I’m really hoping to go back.”

One of the first questions he asked when he got there was where was the nearest gym or track so he could work out — finding a sheet of ice was out of the question — and he was not exactly surrounded by hockey fans.

“By far the least out of all the countries I’ve visited,” he said. “... I was able to show them some videos ... that are on YouTube. They were pretty blown away.”

His work for years away from campus has long been impressive, adding to what last season’s leading scorer does on the ice, to earn him the captain’s “C” on his sweater.

“People might have the impression that David has the players’ respect because of so much that he does off the ice,” Gadowsky said. “I’m sure that’s part of it, but I’m also certain the reason he gets the votes is because of the respect he has from the team in terms of his hockey IQ and also the way he’s developed into a guy that wins battles.”

Goodwin had no idea there was so much more to the captain’s job than just pucks and sticks.

“I quickly learned that they really do come to you for anything,” Goodwin said. “They’ll be like, ‘Where’s the Willard Building?’”

Big ... and fast

The team has a dozen newcomers this season, and the one who makes the biggest impression is 6-foot-7 Nikita Pavlychev. It’s hard to miss him on the ice, but both Gadowsky and the Nittany Lions think he has a lot more to his game than his impressive stature.

“He’s actually a really good skater,” Robinson said.

“You’ll be very surprised,” Ricky DeRosa said. “I kow the first take, you hear 6-7, huge guy, probably slow — he’s actually very fast, great on his edges, works on it all the time, huge stick, really fun to play with. He’s a very smart hockey player.”

Big Ten ice shavings

Michigan’s losses: Suffering the biggest losses, in terms of point production, from last season is Michigan. The Wolverines lost all three members of their potent “CCM” line — JT Compher, Kyle Connor and Tyler Motte — who were all near the top of the nation in scoring, to early departures to the NHL. In all, the Wolverines saw five leave for the pros with college eligibility remaining.

“I expected to lose players,” longtime head coach Red Berenson said in a Big Ten conference call Thursday morning. “I didn’t think we would lose five.”

New guy this year: Wisconsin has a new coach this season with Tony Granato replacing Mike Eaves, who was fired. Granato takes over his alma mater after 14 seasons playing in the NHL and several NHL coaching stops, including the head coach of the Colorado Avalanche and an assistant for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings.

New guy next year: During the offseason, Notre Dame was added to the Big Ten for hockey. The Fighting Irish, who host the Nittany Lions for a non-conference series Oct. 21-22, will be a part of the conference schedule for the 2017-18 season.

“It’s a perfect fit for the Big Ten,” Minnesota’s Don Lucia said during the conference call, adding he hoped another conference school will add hockey, or another affiliate membership will be made with an existing program to give the Big Ten eight teams.

This story was originally published September 29, 2016 at 11:22 PM with the headline "James Robinson eager to get back on ice with Penn State hockey team."