from David Pollak of Working the Corners,

I was also curious about how his sense of the game has changed since he played in the 1970s and now views it as a coach in 2013.

“The game’s changed and I’ve been able to adapt to the changes in the game,” Robinson said. “I think I would have been a frustrated player playing in today’s game because when you’re big, a lot of the things you were able to do back then as a bigger player, you can’t do now.”

Then he talked of conversations he had with former NHL defenseman Vladimir Malakhov.

“I related to Malakhov – that was one of the main reasons why he quit hockey. He said, ‘I don’t know what to do anymore. If I put my hand here I get called for a penlty, if I do this I get called for a penalty.’ It frustrated the hell out of him so I think it would frustrate me a little bit,” Robinson said. “The fact that I was a good skater, I could probably adapt to it.”

Robinson has been coaching in the NHL for almost 20 years now. I asked him last summer how has his coaching philosophy changed over that time ?

“I was a little more of a defensive-minded coach. And I think in a way I’m still the same, I still think that good defense leads to offense – but I think you have to be a little more offensive minded now with the way the game is going.

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