Providence Bruins’ Bobby Robins: The Warrior-Poet

[blackngold]

The first star of the game, number twenty-one, Bobby Robins!

The crowd roars. Skating to the ice, beckoning for more applause, is a lone black-and-gold clad forward. The stadium responds in-kind, cheers rising to obscene decibel-levels.

The thirty-one year-old Robins is no ordinary grinder.

On this night Robins doesn’t drop the gloves. Almost comically, the fistic fourth-liner (with five fights already this season) will fall a fight shy of his first Gordie Howe Hat-Trick with the Baby B’s. The Dunkin’ Donuts Center faithful will have to be satisfied with a game-winning tally and a game-icing helper.

During each shift, Robins’ efforts exude passion and he appears to swell with intensity and energy. Even his missed checks carry momentum to the team. When the P-Bruins all but secure the win with a Lane MacDermid third-period goal (which Robins assisted), number twenty-one leaps over MacDermid’s prone form– half trying to avoid his prostrate teammate and half bubbling-over with jubilation.

Remember, this is November. Not April.

Providence Head Coach Bruce Cassidy won’t deny the team got some added ‘bump’ from seeing Bobby score just twenty-two seconds in: “It gives us a big lift… When they see him score, it counts for a little bit more… the guys love Bobby – love the way he plays. It’s always nice when those guys get rewarded, especially early when it gets the crowd into it.”

Continue Reading