"Doug said to me, 'What do you think?' " Robinson recalled of his conversation with Armstrong after the Blues had been shut out for a third time in four games (1-3-0), while scoring four goals.
"I said, 'I don't think we played that bad, but when you get shut out three times in four games, you're not going to win too many games.' Doug said, 'Well, I decided to make a (coaching) change,' and I'm thinking, 'Well, here we go…' So, here I am."
Robinson, 67, arrived behind the Blues bench with a serious pedigree: nine Stanley Cup championships -- six as a defenseman with the Canadiens and three with the New Jersey Devils as coach or in management -- as well as Norris Trophy wins as the NHL's best defenseman in 1977 and 1980 and the 1978 Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the postseason.
And the Hall of Famer arrived with a hastily packed suitcase.
Armstrong asked Robinson to meet the Blues in Nashville on Nov. 20 for a game against the Predators the next night, so the scramble was underway.
"I left Tampa (Nov. 20) for Nashville and got in there around 3 o'clock that afternoon," said Robinson, who jumped on the ice for the Blues morning skate ahead of their 4-1 loss the following night.
"Then I left Nashville the next day and flew back to Tampa, where (wife) Jeannette picked me up at the airport to go straight to our son's place in Plant City for a Thanksgiving dinner we'd planned. It was a nice visit; then we went back to our place that night, I packed and got up at 4 o'clock the next morning and flew at 6:30 a.m. to St. Louis because we were home to Nashville the following night (Nov. 23)."
Robinson says he's eager to help the team, even while admitting that travel long ago became a grind, having for decades shuttled from planes through airports to hotels and arenas across the continent.
"It's been fun, this is a good group of guys," Robinson said. "We just have to get playing up to our capabilities, we're not playing as well as we can. We're working at it. Mike (Yeo) is a good guy. He tried his best, but that's the way it is."