Goalie coaches, by job title anyway, aren’t expected to provide tips to forwards on how to score.
Apparently, Jeff Reese didn’t get that memo.
After Jason Robertson scored a crafty goal for a hat trick on Monday in a Game 3 win over the Edmonton Oilers, he credited the Stars’ goalie coach for some help in an interview with Sportsnet’s Kyle Bukauskas and then again in a press conference with a room of other reporters.
“It’s a lot of work with our goalies in practice. You learn stuff. I can credit my goalie coach on that one,” Robertson told Bukauskas.
Robertson, at the side of the net, squeezed a shot off Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner into the short side to put Dallas up 4-3 midway through the third period. The Stars added an empty-netter to grab a 5-3 lead.
“I got the first one, and then I’m like, OK I’m going to shoot everything,” Robertson said.
Reese is a familiar name for many Canadian hockey fans.
A fourth-round pick by Toronto in 1984 from the London Knights, Reese played for some truly terrible Maple Leafs teams to start his NHL career before he was sent to the Calgary Flames in the famous Doug Gilmour trade.
Reese went on to play for the Hartford Whalers, Tampa Bay Lightning and New Jersey Devils before finishing his playing career with two games in Toronto in 1998-99. He played just 11 career NHL playoff games.
The native of Brantford, Ont., has had a long career as a goalie coach, working for the Lightning (where he won a Stanley Cup in 2004), Philadelphia Flyers and Stars, the latter since 2015-16.
Robertson, who hadn’t scored in his previous 10 games, said his decision on the third goal may have been the result of some newfound confidence.
“I don’t know if I would have done that if I wouldn’t have scored two goals,” Robertson said.