Matt Robbins
Induction Year: 2010
Birthday: March 11, 1970
City/Town: Lowell, MA
Those four years that Matt Robbins skated for Nashua High School were marked, emphatically so, by a gaggle of wins: 64, to be exact-against just 16 losses and three ties.
There were back-to-back state hockey championships, too-the first in his freshman year of 1985, and then again in 1986. Plus, there was a 33-game win streak fashioned over three seasons.
That ’85 hockey championship was the very first in Nashua High School’s long and distinguished athletic history. And ironically, all three of the team’s tournament wins that March were by 3-2 margins.
The championship of ’86 was doubly special, culminating the hockey program’s first undefeated season, 21-0, to go along with the back-to-back title sequence.
There also was a near-miss title during that time period. It came in Durham in March of 1988 when Nashua lost an overtime heartbreaker in the final round, 5-4, to Trinity High School of Manchester.
Matt’s coach, Bill Batte, now retired from high school hockey, well remembers how his gifted forward made good things happen on the ice.
“During those four years, I watched him do phenomenal things with a hockey stick,” he says. “And people came out just to watch him.”
In Matt’s senior year of 1988, he was paid a high compliment by Manchester Memorial coach, Bernie Dudley. Right after a 3-2 double-overtime state tournament loss to Nashua, the opposing coach saluted Matt as “Mister Everything.”
And throughout that season he was, indeed, Mister Everything, finishing with 38 goals and 37 assists, scoring at least once in each of the 21 games that Nashua played.
And, too, 1988 marked the fourth consecutive year Matt was named an All State forward.
Although selected by the New York Islanders in the 9th round of the 1989 NHL entry draft (overall 170th), Matt opted to enroll at the University of Lowell.
After skating in just 14 college games and scoring a pair of goals with eight assists, he decided to take advantage of his draft opportunity and he turned pro.
Ultimately, he played five seasons in the East Coast Hockey League.
To start the 1992-93 season, he reported to the Birmingham Bulls. However, after just a few games, he was in Johnstown, Pennsylvania wearing the uniform of the famed Chiefs.
In 1993, he again changed teams, signing on with the Charlotte Checkers, later making a brief nine-game stopover with the Providence Bruins in the American Hockey League.
In five ECHL seasons, including his four with the Checkers, he played 314 games, scoring 137 goals and 269 assists.
His best ECHL scoring season was 1993-94 when he had 33 goals and 56 assists in 53 games.
Matt finished his career in Finland after the 1997-98 season, having played 44 games with the Karpat team. He posted a 50-point season, with 21 goals and 29 assists.
Matt today lives in Merrimack with his wife, Kathy, and their daughter, Kelly, and son, Kyle.
He is part owner of JDM Pharmaceutical Water Systems in Nashua, a company started in 1986 by his dad.
Interestingly, Matt’s long-time friend and high school teammate, Jacque “Jack” Rodrigue-also one of today’s NH Legends of Hockey inductees-is employed by JDM Pharmaceutical Water Systems.