Robertson crunching numbers, studying film to lead Stars into postseason

BOSTON -- To Glen Gulutzan, the answer is so obvious he doesn't even really need to hear the question: Does he think that there's a mismatch between the perception of Jason Robertson's game and the reality he sees on the ice every night as the Dallas Stars coach?

"I do," he jumps in. "I do, before you even had to finish that question. I do.

"He's a very, very cerebral player, one of those players that he doesn't burn a lot of energy running around but he accomplishes a lot, right?" the coach continued. "He accomplishes a lot and every night you take a look and you look at your chances for and your chances against and he's littered on the chances for side. So yeah, I do see that."

There has been so much talk of Robertson this season, what he is, what he isn't, where he will be playing hockey next season and beyond. There has been so much thought devoted to the parameters of his game, to its limitations and its breadth, especially given the decision by USA Hockey and general manager Bill Guerin to leave Robertson off the team for the 2026 Winter Olympics. 

And though perhaps Team USA's historic gold medal -- beating Team Canada in a battle of heavyweights -- vindicated Guerin's decision, there is the strong sense among the Stars that Robertson, his game, and his utter obsession with hockey have been undersold. 

"I think he's been just terrific for us, both ways," Gulutzan said. "Obviously he's got 40 goals and he's been unbelievable on the power play, making plays when we've had injuries to (Mikko Rantanen) and some key guys, he's carried the load offensively. 

"And night after night you just look at the scoresheet, you look at the chances he creates, look at his overall defending, he's been a real complete player for us."

Robertson topped the 40-goal mark for the third time in his career, with 91 points (41 goals, 50 assists) in 78 games for the Stars, who host the Minnesota Wild on Thursday (9 p.m. ET; HULU, ESPN+) in a preview of their Western Conference First Round series, which was set on Tuesday. Home-ice advantage for that series is still up for grabs, with Dallas leading Minnesota by two points and already holding the first tiebreaker (regulation wins) 35-30. Each team has four games left. 

Robertson leads the Stars and all United States-born players in points (two more than Kyle Connor of the Winnipeg Jets), and he's second in goals among Americans to Cole Caufield (49 goals) of the Montreal Canadiens, who was also left off Team USA's roster. 

Asked about those perceptions and realities of his game, Robertson said, "I know exactly what you mean."

It's part of why he has always been so drawn to analytics, to the numbers that can increasingly quantify exactly what he does on the ice and what he doesn't, the video that can show how a play went and how it was supposed to go. 

"Perception is everything," Robertson said. "Analytics when they all match up together, they don't really lie and you can tell where your game's been heading, what's gone right. Results too. Those don't lie. But perception is a lot and over my career, I think, people think that a lot. But it doesn't really matter. I think the results and the analytics speak for themselves."

Does that mean the conversation about him is shifting?

"I don't know," Robertson said. "I don't know what people see. I see what I see and I see a player who's moving their feet more, battling harder, and creating more opportunity, taking guys on, one on one, using my body, protecting the puck, breaking the puck out well, everything. So I see that. And the coaches see that."

Robertson knows because he sees it. He has long loved watching his own film, diving deep into the shifts, amazed at the wealth of numbers and clips he can get his hands on since he joined the NHL. He was thrilled when he realized that there were iPads on the benches for real-time review, after they were introduced two seasons before he made his NHL debut in 2019-20, tickled at phone access to clips.

As he said, he looks at the numbers, the video "quite a bit. … Having that accessibility, it's been huge. I mean, I love it."

"You play so many games, so it's hard to keep track of it," he said. "But I watch all my shifts from last game. You can tell offensive zone possession time, xGA, xGF, all that type of stuff, controlled entries, everything. So you see how involved you are in the games.

"Some people are old school or traditional, and to each their own, but there's nothing better than learning from your mistakes and everything and trying to improve."

It is, as he put it, "an open book of knowledge."

"There's so much information out there," Robertson said. "So much where people don't really know what to do with most of it."

That's why, when asked about Robertson's dedication to the maximization of his hockey knowledge -- or, to put it more casually -- his hockey nerddom, Stars goalie Jake Oettinger assess him at a 9.9 out of 10. 

"Which is great," Oettinger added. "He's a rink rat. He just loves being on the ice, loves to skate. I don't know exactly his summer schedule, but I'm guessing he's probably skating like five days a week. Just loves it, loves trying to get better."

In Robertson, Oettinger sees a player with the hockey IQ to know what to do, the skills to put that knowledge into place, and the confidence and willingness to try plays and shots and passes that others might not. 

"He scores goals that are kind of like, how did that go in?" Oettinger said. "It doesn't shock me. … Most guys wouldn't even think to shoot it there and he does and scores and it makes sense to the guys that know what he's trying to do."

Still, this season didn't start optimally for Robertson. Through the first 16 games, he had three goals. The next 16 games? He scored 17. 

He knew it would come around. He worked tirelessly to make it happen. 

"When you do goalie work and you have shooters come out, you can just tell, there are some guys that are just different and I think part of it is because he's like a hockey nerd and he just can't stay away from the ice," Oettinger said. "Goal-scoring wise, he's one of the smartest players I've ever played with. He is just obsessed with hockey, thinks the game so well. He's obviously not the fastest or strongest guy, but he's just so smart. 

"He reminds me of (New York Rangers defenseman) Adam Fox, not like the fastest or strongest, but their hockey IQ is so high so it just brings them to an elite level and they can just out-think guys."

As good as this season has been for Robertson, both in terms of the Stars play and in terms of his own, there remains an X-factor for him. He is set to become a restricted free agent at the end of the season. 

But it hasn't bothered him. He has taken the unknown in stride, helped by coming into this past summer healthy, ready to prepare, after he missed most of training camp the season before. He believed he was setting himself up exactly right for a big season. 

He wasn't wrong. 

"We've pretty much had an idea of like, play this season out, not really worry too much about it," Robertson said. "Just play. Just go out there and play.

"Some guys it weighs on you a bit, but for me, even the results are there. I mean, you look at perception. I see it, the way I'm playing, regardless of if the results aren't there, that you're playing well enough and you're doing the right things, then you don't have to worry about that stuff. It's been good. It's been a nice relief just playing, playing the right way, playing well. If I'm not playing well, I know I'm not playing well."