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SPORTSCENTRE Reporter

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Robert Thomas has done a lot of winning for a guy who won't turn 21 until July. His resume already includes a Memorial Cup title with the London Knights, a World Junior gold medal with Team Canada and a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues.

So, it should come as no surprise that Thomas has kept on winning even though the National Hockey League season is paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Thomas captained Team St. Louis, also featuring Blues defenceman Vince Dunn and forward Jordan Kyrou, to a title in Monday's NHL Players’ Association Open, a Fortnite tournament for charity.

The event featured 23 teams of three representing different NHL cities and countries. Pittsburgh finished second with Winnipeg coming in third. There was $200,000 on the line, with the top teams getting to choose which charities get the funds.

"Honestly, we were pretty confident going into it and throughout the whole thing," said Thomas with a smile. "We felt we had a good chance."

Thomas owns a healthy swagger these days. The Blues surged to the top of the Western Conference despite playing most of the season without injured sniper Vladimir Tarasenko. 

"Winning gives you a lot of confidence," Thomas said. "Our team is so much more confident after winning and it showed this year. We kind of just kept on building off what we had done. For us to come together as a team after losing a player like Vlady and have a successful year kind of speaks volume​s to what we have in the room and how confident we are going into every game."

Like the Blues, Thomas also built on his success. During his rookie season, Thomas put up 33 points in 70 games (0.47 per game). This year, he was already at 42 points through 66 games (0.64 per) while averaging 14:34 of ice time, a 90-second increase from his freshman campaign. 

"I feel like it's a similar story to my junior career," the Aurora, Ont. native said. "The first year you're learning and slowly getting better and the second year you continue to get better. Even with the small stuff, day-to-day stuff, it’s about just getting better and slowly showing improvement. I feel I've been able to do that so far and still a long way to go."

Thomas linked up with TSN via Zoom this week to talk about his eSports success, relive his key assist in Game 7 of last year's second-round series against Dallas and explain why the cause of muscular dystrophy is near and dear to his heart. 

Team St. Louis gets $100,000 for winning the NHLPA Open, which charities will it be going to? 

"We've split it up into a couple things. For me, I got a back story with my billet brother, Owen, and muscular dystrophy, so my portion will be going there. We have some going to the children's hospital in St. Louis and the food bank in St. Louis as well."

You have a close bond with your billet brother from London, Owen McGonigal​, who lives with a form of muscular dystrophy. How did that relationship develop? 

"He’s been a huge inspiration for me. I was able to learn so much from him. He has such a positive outlook on life, and nothing ever holds him back and that was a cool thing for me to see. You come home after a bad game and you're not in a good mood and he's just cheering you up. He's a special person to me, so I'm glad I can help contribute to muscular dystrophy."

How much has gaming helped you to stay relaxed during this long break? 

"It's been awesome staying in touch with your buddies by logging on at night and playing a couple hours with them. I mean, there's not much you can do."

You scored with the one-handed deke while playing in the Blues Gaming NHL 20 Showdown. How satisfying was that?  

"I've been playing a lot on a live stream with Blues fans watching, which is a good way to interact with them, but a lot of them were chirping me about never scoring one of those goals. So, funny enough, I pulled it off in the tournament. Pretty cool. That was the first one I've ever done so I was pretty pumped."

Would you ever try that move in a game? 

"Ah, it's a situational thing. I can't say it's the first thing I'm thinking when I'm going down on a breakaway, but we'll see. We'll see."  

 

We just passed the one-year anniversary of the double overtime Game 7 against the Dallas Stars. What do you remember most about assisting on the Patrick Maroon winner? 

"You kind of just black out or zone out when you try to remember something so cool like that. For me, I remember off the draw how loud the Enterprise Center was, everyone standing, and then the play just kind of happened. It all worked out perfectly. [Tyler Bozak] won the draw to a perfect spot, Patty kind of picked the guy on the wall and allowed me to cut to the middle and the rest is history." 

When you released the shot did you feel good about it? 

"It felt really good. To be honest, I wasn't really looking where I was shooting, I just knew I wanted to go glove side on him so that was pretty much it. I didn't see where the puck landed, but I knew it was behind him and that's about it." 

 

Reliving memories like that get fans excited about the potential for playoff hockey. How optimistic are you about the season resuming? 

"I'm pretty optimistic. I think all the players want to get back and play. You're getting to the best time of year with the playoffs so it's where you want to be. We have a chance to come back and play, but I'm not sure too much about the details." 

How closely are you following the news when it comes to COVID-19? 

"I'd say the first two weeks I was following along religiously and watching the news and now I just got my mom for that. She's all over that. You bring up anything COVID and she'll let you know about it. For me, now, I'm trying to stay away from it as much as I can. It drives you a little bit crazy. Now, I'm just relaxing and getting the updates from the NHLPA and going from there." 

How many questions does your mom have about how the NHL plans on returning? 

"She's got a bunch. Yeah, she's been the strict one around here, so nothing comes in or out. Definitely, before we come back, she'll want to know a bunch of stuff. But with the NHL and NHLPA, they'll make sure it's done right, so no worries about that."