Time flies. The grind doesn’t.
I just celebrated my 44th birthday.
Ten years ago, I had just broken through and made it to the NHL.
Ten years before that, I graduated from UMass Lowell after a successful four-year collegiate career and signed my first NHL contract.
If you did the math, you caught it — it took me a decade to crack the NHL.
That’s a lot of bus rides.
A lot of cold rinks.
A lot of games in the minors and seasons overseas in Europe.
It’s a long road to find your identity as a hockey player.
And here’s the truth: I hope you don’t have to grind it out for a decade before your dream becomes real. I hope you get there sooner. But the reality is, even before those 10 years, I was already grinding. I’d been going the extra mile and laying it on the line ever since I was a kid.
That’s the lesson I want to pass to you — embrace the grind.
Whether you’re 8 years old lacing them up for your first season, a junior player trying to get noticed, or a pro chasing that next contract — the grind is the common thread. It’s not punishment. It’s the path.
And here’s the secret: the little things matter more than you think.
The extra reps. The extra shifts. The extra minutes on the driveway or in the gym.
They don’t look like much on their own, but over time they add up to something massive — big games, big goals, big dreams.
Now that I’m in “old man” territory, time feels like it’s flying by. It seems like just yesterday I was fighting for a roster spot, dropping the gloves for the first time, giving it everything I had.
When I look back now, the downs — the setbacks, the disappointments — don’t seem so bad. They were proving grounds. They made me who I am. And the ups? The highlights shine even brighter because I know the cost of every one of them.
I talked to a buddy of mine the other day — an NHL star who signed a $50 million contract. I asked him how the season was going so far. He’s been through training camp, exhibition games, and the first few regular season matchups.
His answer?
“Just grinding it out.”
That’s the mark of a true pro.
They know the grind never ends — and they embrace it.
They find joy in the grind.
Someday, every hockey player becomes an old-timer. And when that day comes, I want you — or your kid — to look back with no regrets.
So here’s to chasing big dreams and making them happen.
Here’s to embracing the grind, every single day.
Because time flies. But the grind? The grind stays.
See you in the trenches,
—Bobby Robins, savage motivator, ex hockey pro