WORCESTER—Railers defenseman Brendan Robbins has a heart of stone. And that’s meant to be taken in the most complimentary way.
He was born and raised in New Hampshire and still lives in the Granite State. Robbins drives back and forth from Nashua to Worcester throughout the season. He is as granite as they come.
How granite?
There should be a sticker on the back of his jersey reading, “This defenseman climbed Mt. Washington.” He has gone up and down New England’s highest peak more than once on foot. Robbins has done the state’s Presidential Loop as well.
“I love getting up there,” he said. “It’s difficult, but I feel like, being from New Hampshire, it’s one of those things you’ve got to do in your life. You’ve got to be prepared, know what you’re doing, bring the right gear.
“I try to get into the mountains as much as possible in the summer. I’m definitely more of an outdoors guy and New Hampshire has a lot of good spots to go camping, hiking and biking.”
Robbins was probably more prepared to climb mountains than he was to make a major career change about a month ago. At that time, he was shifted from center, where he had always played, to defenseman, where he had never played.
To date, Robbins looks like he knows what he’s doing and has brought the right gear.
“It’s been great,” he said. “I’ve loved it. A bit of a transition, yeah. I never really played it before. I’ll do anything to help the team win and I think it plays into some of my strong suits; being able to skate with the puck, use my speed, make good breakout passes. I’ve enjoyed it so far.”
Robbins has adapted so well to the blue line it seems as though the change was a stroke of genius by Railers coaches Jordan Smotherman and assistant Bob Deraney.
It was, sort of.
“It was almost an accident,” Smotherman said. “We didn’t have enough defensemen, and one day at practice we needed somebody to go back and take some reps. He was coming back from a little bit of a bump that he had, and he took a couple of 2 on 2s, a couple of 2 on 1s, and I looked at (assistant coach) Bob Deraney and said — he might be able to play ‘D.’ We figured that the way he skates, that he had played center his entire career, it would translate well.”
On defense, Robbins’ speed shows up better than it did when he played forward. When he gets a little space, he moves the puck out of the zone in a hurry and the opposition has a hard time catching up.
“He had a really good first game and he’s gotten stronger ever since,” Smotherman said. “It’s not an experiment anymore. He’s been very good for us back there and has been contributing on the offensive side from the back end. He’s been a good shutdown guy for us.”
Robbins graduated from Nashua North High and would have loved to play college hockey at UNH but that school did not extend an invitation. Instead, Robbins went to Maine and skated for the Black Bears for four seasons. One of his assistant coaches there was Ben Guite, the former Worcester Shark.
“I’m the happiest man alive that I got to be a Maine Black Bear,” Robbins said. “I take a lot of pride in that. Once a Black Bear, always a Black Bear.”
His college career ended with the 2018-19 season. He then had the unique experience of playing for the Thunderbirds and Thunderbolts in succession. The Birds were Springfield of the AHL. The Bolts were Evansville of the SPHL.
Starting with the 2020-21 season, Robbins has played for four different ECHL teams. They are, in order: the Kansas City Mavericks, Maine Mariners, Iowa Heartlanders, and the Railers. He was with Maine in 2021-22 with Guite as head coach.
That was one of those last-game playoff races with Maine narrowly edging out Worcester.
“I remember we had some really good games with Worcester and it went down to the wire,” he said. “We beat them out right at the end. Hopefully, it’s vice-versa this season.”
The typical ECHL roster is in a constant state of flux, even more so as the season progresses. Robbins’ versatility has provided the Railers with a big boost and he seems destined to get even better at defense.
“The thing is that, through the learning process,” Smotherman said, “because he skates so well, when he does make a mistake he’s fast enough to get back and re-involve himself in the play.”
Speed is coachable only to a certain extent. That gives Robbins a head start, literally, on learning his new position.
“It’s been a great switch,” he said. “You try to do the right things, the little things, skate with the puck, and be helpful with the breakout and not just send the puck around the boards.
“I need to work on my footwork, skating backward, and that comes with time. The more we practice, the more games we play, the more reps we get — I’ll get better at it. I think it’s been a success so far but we’ve got to keep it going in the right direction.”
With the Railers regular season more than half over, that direction would be toward the post-season.
Bill Ballou covered the Red Sox for the Worcester Telegram from 1997 through 2018. He has covered pro hockey in Worcester since 1994 and currently does a weekly column for the Worcester Red Sox. Ballou can be reached at vetgoalie@aol.com
