Robin Lehner Wins Masterton
By Cory Wright
Robin Lehner got his first ovation from New York Islanders fans before the goaltender had even played a minute for the team. Standing in his crease for a preseason game at Nassau Coliseum, Lehner received a roar from the crowd, simply just by being on the ice. Islanders fans weren’t cheering for the player, but rather the person. One who’d overcome great adversity.
Lehner arrived on Long Island as a changed man in 2018. The goaltender had long battled alcoholism and substance abuse, but after having a panic attack mid-game with the Buffalo Sabres the season prior, he checked himself into rehab. In treatment, he was also diagnosed as bipolar 1 with manic phases, a revelation for someone who’d always ridden emotional swings, but had no idea why.
Sober, healthy, and managing his condition, Lehner shared his journey with the world in a first-person account for The Athletic, which dropped on the first day of training camp with his new team. It was a brave step, as the tattooed and hulking 6-4, 240-lbs. Swede put himself in an emotional and vulnerable position publicly. He was immediately embraced by his teammates, the organization, and Islanders fans.
If the preseason ovation was the end of a journey to get back on the ice, it was also the start of a dream season for Lehner. He turned in his best season to date, going 25-13-5 with a 2.13 goals-against-average, a .930 save percentage and six shutouts, finishing third in Vezina Trophy voting. He didn’t win the Vezina, but he and goaltending partner Thomas Greiss won the William M. Jennings Trophy for allowing the fewest goals against.
Lehner also won the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, given to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey. He won for overcoming what he’d gone through, but that wasn’t enough for Lehner, who used his personal journey and his platform for mental health advocacy, doing his part to dispel the stigma associated with mental health issues. He wanted to show people that mental illness, like his bipolar diagnosis, doesn’t mean a person can’t achieve great things. On stage at the NHL Awards, Lehner told the audience, “I’m not ashamed to say I’m mentally ill, but that doesn’t mean mentally weak."
Lehner’s play, candor, and advocacy made him a folk hero among Islanders fans and his time on Long Island was so important to him that he tattooed the island on his neck. Few players are able to establish a connection like that with a team, fan base, or city. Even fewer can do it in one year.
Lehner was only an Islander for the 2018-19 season, but in that one year, the goaltender managed to leave a mark on the franchise, the fans, the league, and society at large. And in the most literal terms, it left one on him.