Nick Robertson had two goals in the Pittsburgh Penguins‘ shutout win over the Florida Panthers. But that isn’t even half the story.
Robertson has two games in which he has scored multiple goals. In both games, the Penguins have shut out their opponents. Want more irony? The Penguins have won just two games in regulation all season. Both have come in games when Robertson scores twice.
As with the Penguins’ shutout win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Sep. 30, Robertson opened the scoring on Thursday night when Connor Dewar took a pass from Kris Letang. Dewar found Robertson in the slot, and Robertson got one past Panthers goaltender Cooper Black.
Dewar made an incredible decision to refrain from passing the puck into traffic in front of the net. Instead, he knew Robertson was coming. So he turned and fired in Robertson’s direction. Both Florida players in front of the net tried to converge, and Robertson made them pay.
Robertson struck again on an empty-netter at the 17:34 mark of the third period, again with a primary assist from Dewar. The goal helped solidify the strange coincidence involving Robertson’s multi-goal game leading to a second shutout. Arturs Silovs made it official just under two and a half minutes later.
Nick Robertson Is Once Again Showing He’s Capable Of Contributing
With six goals in 11 games, Robertson is quickly establishing himself, once again, as one of the league’s more underrated scorers. That became a theme during his time with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Robertson scored 45 goals in 203 contests between 2023-24 and 2025-26 with the Maple Leafs, ending each season with 14, 15, and 16 goals, respectively. This came despite averaging 12:05 of ice time in those three seasons. Robertson put up 81 total points, more than showing he was capable of posting respectable numbers offensively.
This season with the Penguins, Robertson has just 12:27 of average ice time, six goals, and a 28.6 shooting percentage in 11 games. For a Penguins team that looks like it must score a high number of goals to win games — 36 goals for vs. 37 against through 11 contests, or 3.27 for vs. 3.36 allowed — giving Robertson more ice time could pay dividends.
Pittsburgh also must find ways to gain ground in the Metropolitan Division. With nine points, they are already well behind the division-leading Carolina Hurricanes (18 points) and the second-place New York Rangers (15 points). Giving some of their depth scorers like Robertson more ice time could help out that cause.
Robertson Would Help The Penguins In Several Ways
Despite Pittsburgh’s struggles defensively, Robertson has been a factor all over the ice. At even strength, he has been on the ice for nine goals while watching just two land in the Penguins’ net.
That gives him an on-ice shooting percentage of 13.0, while posting an on-ice save percentage of 96.3. While those numbers probably won’t hold with more ice time, they still demonstrate how effective Robertson is when he is on the ice.
He also has a 53.9 Corsi For Percentage at even strength despite 34.6 percent of his starts coming in the offensive zone. That’s nearly a 20 percent differential, and it again shows that Robertson needs to be on the ice more.
With just 11 games played this season, there is a good chance Nick Robertson has a few more multi-goal games in him. Not all of them will end up in shutouts, but they could indeed keep ending in the Penguins’ favor.
Nick Robertson Repeats Unlikely Feat In Panthers Shutout