Robbie Earl

Infobox Ice Hockey Player

---

image_size = 200px
team= Toronto Maple Leafs
league = NHL
position = Left Wing
shoots = Left
height_ft = 6
height_in = 0
weight_lb = 195
nickname =
nationality = USA
birth_date = birth date and age|1985|6|2|mf=y
birth_place = Chicago, IL, USA
draft = 187th overall
draft_year = 2004
draft_team = Toronto Maple Leafs
career_start = 2006

Robert Wayne "Robbie" Earl (born June 2, 1985, in Chicago, Illinois) is a hockey player currently with the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League.

Toronto Maple Leafs

Earl made his NHL debut as a Toronto Maple Leaf in their game on February 2, 2008 versus the Ottawa Senators. [http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20072008/ES020786.HTM] He recorded an assist.

Frozen Four

While playing collegiate hockey with the Wisconsin Badgers, Robbie Earl scored a goal in the final of the 2006 Frozen Four tournament against the Boston College Eagles, helping the Badgers win the NCAA Men's Hockey Championship. Robbie also scored twice against the University of Maine Black Bears in the Frozen Four semifinal. He was Toronto Maple Leafs’ fourth choice in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft. After the 2005–2006 NCAA season, he went professional and now is in the Maple Leafs organization.

Badgers career

Earl's career began in 2003/04, reaching a career low of only 27 points, in the most games he had ever amassed in a year. However, he still led the team in the scoring category. He was also honoured to make the All-Rookie Team, tallying six power-play goals and three game winning goals that year. His first hat trick came in overtime against the league-leading North Dakota. Along with "Insidecollegehockey.com"’s National Player of the Week award, he was congratulated with the WCHA Rookie of the Week award to end his freshman campaign.

The next year he improved his point total, enough to make the roster for the Second-Team All-WCHA. The successful year led him to a team-best 20 goals, eighth total ranked eighth in the WCHA. Earl also tied the team lead with five-game-winning goals, sharing second in the WCHA where his second career hat trick came against the University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves on November 19. He also won the WCHA Offensive Player of the Week in that same time span, the first for the University of Wisconsin-Madison since the 2000–01 season. Earl ranked third in the plus/minus department, with a rating of +17. Additionally, he started the year with a seven-game scoring streak then broke the record the same year, with eight, from January 14 to February 12. While playing for the Badgers, Earl earned a reputation for being a diver, which was exemplified by an incident in the national title game against Boston College. After an obvious dive, Earl remained on the ice for several seconds looking for a penalty call only to immediately jump back to his feet when the puck squirted out in front of him. This play may have gone unnoticed had Earl not scored just a few seconds later, tying the score at 1–1. ESPN, which had televised the game, showed highlights of this incident but generally glossed over the fact that Earl had made an obvious dive. College hockey fans were not so forgiving; many already disliked this particular aspect of Earl's game and considered this particular dive, in such a major (and nationally televised) event a disgrace to the game. Nevertheless, Wisconsin went on to win the game 2–1, and Earl was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Frozen Four.

AHL career

Earl played one game during the 2005–06 regular season and three in the playoffs without registering any points or penalties. The following year, he scored 12 goals and 18 assists and racked up 50 penalty minutes in 67 games.

Background

The Badgers official site lists his grandparents as Tom and Pat McCusker. He also has two sisters, Brianne and Erin. He attended Ann Arbor Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as part of the USA Hockey National Development Team. He is one of five Badgers from the USA Hockey National Team Development Program currently on the roster. Before that he spent ninth grade at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, California. He was majoring in consumer science at Wisconsin before leaving early for the NHL. Robbie played two years as a forward with the USA Hockey National Development Under-18 and Under-17 Programs. He ranked third on the under-18 team in 2002–03 with 33 points and 20 goals in 53 games, finishing fourth at the 2003 IIHF World Under-18 Championship in Yaroslavl, Russia. He was the game-winning goal scorer in the championship game of the 2002 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Stonewell, Manitoba and was fourth in scoring for the NTDP Under-17 Team with 22 goals and 16 assists in 58 games during 2001–02. He played for Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves at the NTDP. After saying he would return to the Badgers for his senior season at the school's rally for the men's and women's Frozen Four Champions, two days later he announced that he decided to join the Maple Leafs instead. He joined the Toronto Marlies, the Maple Leafs' American Hockey League affiliate. Earl saw action in the team's first round North Division semifinal series against the Grand Rapids Griffins in for the 2006 Calder Cup Playoffs.

ee also

*List of AHL seasons
*List of black NHL players

External links

*hockeydb|77464
* [http://www.uscho.com/news/id,12572/RobbieEarlMostOutstandingPlayer Robbie Earl: Most Outstanding Player (USCHO article)]
* [http://www.torontomarlies.com/team/player.asp?player_id=72 Toronto Marlies profile]