What was Luc Robitaille's playing style?

[Killion]

Robitaille worked himself into open zones down low and in-tight, almost no back-swing to any of his shots and deadly accurate. Goalie couldnt read it coming off a deflection, rebound or pass. No time to. He was that fast with the hands & stick.

 

[seafoam]

Daniel Sedin.

 

[saskganesh]

Very, very rich-man Michael Ryder.

That's probably paying a compliment to Ryder.

Ha! I was gonna say a poor man's Mike Bossy. Lucky Luc was a good sniper.

 

[jason1919spezza]

Heatley was actually decently fast until his knees became an issue. Wasn't Robitaille realistically pretty slow (or at least not known for speed)? Maybe with regard to the pure shooter aspect, though, I can see that.

The game doesn't have many legit, pure snipers anymore. OV plays a much different game, so does Tarasenko. Almost all the other high scoring forwards these days do it with dirty goals, tips, deflections, cleaning up garbage around the net.

Maybe a slower, less physical, better passing OV?

Everything feels like a stretch to come up with a 1:1 comparison.

I'm not too sure about Heatley being "fast"...maybe his actual speed (in terms of pure skating) is, but because he always stayed still at the same spot waiting for Spezza's pass in his days in Ottawa, he became very predictable (and his skating felt so slow) which became apparent AFTER he left the Senators.

But if you're referring that Heatley became slow after that car accident, than maybe he already was slow in his post-lockout form.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

I'm not too sure about Heatley being "fast"...maybe his actual speed (in terms of pure skating) is, but because he always stayed still at the same spot waiting for Spezza's pass in his days in Ottawa, he became very predictable (and his skating felt so slow) which became apparent AFTER he left the Senators.

But if you're referring that Heatley became slow after that car accident, than maybe he already was slow in his post-lockout form.

i think that's what he means. the brett hull-type stationary shooter in ottawa was a totally different beast than the kid who scored 40 goals in atlanta.

neither version of heatley is anything like robitaille though, who made his millions in the slot not the "soft spots," as brett hull used to call them.

 

[BenchBrawl]

Agreed on Michael Ryder.

 

[The Panther]

On his stomach, on his knees. Didn't matter.

 

[The Pale King]

^Great clip. Macinnis tries to tie him up, ends up just hacking him down. No call (as far as I can tell). Robitaille perseveres, showing off his much distinguished hand-eye. Both teams wearing classic sweaters. No ads on the boards. Beautiful.

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

I'd compare him to Joe Pavelski.

Was looking for this. Other than shooting the opposite ways I would agree.

 

[Big Phil]

My friend once said that Robitaille is the type of player that will get a goal on the third rebound with the goalie way out of position. True enough, this is why he was called "Lucky Luc". He scored goals in a peculiar way that I've never seen before or since, they were unorthodox, but he did it 668 times. The simple truth is that Robitaille had a unique nose for the net and a knack at being in the right place at the right time. He may have been fortunate on some plays, but to do it that often it isn't an accident.

 

[Killion]

... but to do it that often it isn't an accident.

... no, it certainly isnt all luck nor accidental. hard worker, creates his own luck.

 

[Sens Rule]

Maybe comparable to peak Cheechoo before his injury.

 

[Canadiens1958]

Other Factors

... no, it certainly isnt all luck nor accidental. hard worker, creates his own luck.

Other factors, body and stick positioning, leverage and weight distribution so that a player will not be moved out of the way while battling for second,third or multiple rebounds. Creating and sustaining opportunities.

 

[ytsur*]

Let's not get carried away with these "garbage goal scorer" descriptions. Luc had some silky soft mits.

 

[Canadiens1958]

Garbage Goal Scorers

Let's not get carried away with these "garbage goal scorer" descriptions. Luc had some silky soft mits.

Garbage Goal Scorers require unique definable skills that have never been properly explored let alone understood. The amount of work the really good ones, Luc Robitaille, Steve Shutt, Wayne Simmonds put into developing the ability of getting open, taking shots out of a scramble of arms and legs is significant.

 

[The Panther]

Eh? Robitaille was not a 'garbage-goal scorer'. Like any forward, he got his share of rebounds, but most of his goals were fast shots on the rush or inside the offensive zone, and a great deal of them were from a considerable distance.

 

[Big Phil]

Eh? Robitaille was not a 'garbage-goal scorer'. Like any forward, he got his share of rebounds, but most of his goals were fast shots on the rush or inside the offensive zone, and a great deal of them were from a considerable distance.

668 goals..............let's try and break it down. I would say 50 of them are of the variety of "Only that could happen to Lucky Luc". But yes, he did have some talent as well. He was not a fast skater at all, he was more of a plodder, but he was the type where it didn't matter because the end result was still something the players didn't stop.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

in his career luc scored more powerplay goals than all but four other guys, accounting for between 1/3 and 1/2 of his total career goals. and as i recall, the vast majority of those were in front of the net.

 

[BraveCanadian]

Robitaille wasn't fast but he got the loose pucks anyways.

He didn't have the kind of dramatic one-timer that Brett Hull did but, just like Hull, Robitaille was also a master of being in the right place at the right time. Somehow fooling the defense into thinking that he wasn't in the play and then bam! it was in the net.

There aren't a lot of players that remind me of Luc, really.

 

[IDeyChopNaira*]

Funny enough but Robitalle hasn't won a single individual award since the Calder in '87

 

[BraveCanadian]

Eh? Robitaille was not a 'garbage-goal scorer'. Like any forward, he got his share of rebounds, but most of his goals were fast shots on the rush or inside the offensive zone, and a great deal of them were from a considerable distance.

Not sure where this Robitaille was an Espo or Andreychuk came from (I got it a bit in this years ATD too) but I agree.. Robitaille wasn't one of those guys who just planted himself in the slot and took a beating to get/keep position. He was much more versatile.

 

[VanIslander]

Funny enough but Robitalle hasn't won a single individual award since the Calder in '87

I think these count:

1987-88 NHL All-Star Team (1st)
1988-89 NHL All-Star Team (1st)
1989-90 NHL All-Star Team (1st)
1990-91 NHL All-Star Team (1st)
1992-93 NHL All-Star Team (1st)

The best left winger in the game. He was awarded 1st team all-star selections. They may not be trophies, but they're awards.

 

[Satan]

Very, very rich-man Michael Ryder.

That's probably paying a compliment to Ryder.

This is what I was thinking.

 

[tony d]

One of the best goal scoring left wingers of all time.

 

[DisgruntledGoat*]

Jordan Eberle