O’Gara’s stock rising
For deep B’s, it may apply as trade chip
The Bruins just might be the envy of the NHL right now. Not only is their team — stocked with high end youth — on a quite a run, but their AHL affiliate in Providence is mirroring that success with promising prospects.
Some of those prospects are probably NHL ready, but as of now, there is no room at the inn on Causeway Street. Even veteran Adam McQuaid is having a hard time cracking the lineup. All those prospects can do about is keep their heads down work on their game in Providence until an opportunity arises — however and wherever that comes.
Robbie O’Gara knows the drill. He got his first taste of the NHL in 201617 when he played the first three games of the season because of injuries to teammates and played well, but was sent down for the rest of the year. This season, O’Gara, 24, had a very good training camp but, though injuries to others again allowed him to play five early games, Matt Grzelcyk’s skill package was more along the lines of what the Bruins wanted and the Charlestown native has run with his chance.
But O’Gara, a 6-foot-4, 210-pound left-shot defenseman who has also played the right side, has done his best to focus on improving his game as he bides his time.
“It’s never easy, but I think coming down this year as opposed to last year I just felt like I had a better mindset,” the Long Island-born O’Gara said. “There are a lot of things that aren’t in my control. I came down last year and I was hard on myself and maybe even a little delusional like, ‘I don’t belong here’ — just kind of in my own head. But this year, I’m (in Providence) for a reason. I’m trying to get better. And that’s the way I’m trying to handle it. And win. We went on a nice little stretch and we’re trying to get back to those winnings ways. That’s my focus right now.”
While O’Gara’s head may be in the right place, Providence coach Jay Leach did have to rein in his game early. For a stay-at-home defenseman the ilk of O’Gara (2-4-6 totals, plus10 in 26 games), you’re often better off when no one notices you.
“I think, like any kid who gets the taste, he wants to get back. So I think he’s got a hunger for it,” Leach said of O’Gara. “It’s tough for a guy like Robbie. I think it’s easier on Anders Bjork; he’s going to come down and he’s going to try and score. Robbie’s job is to defend and close and be solid for us. And sometimes when that happens, you feel like you’re not doing a whole lot. You think, ‘I’ve got to do more to get to the next level.’ We’ve had that with a lot of our guys where we’ve said, ‘Guys, I know it seems a little different, but you just have to simplify and be solid.’ Because it’s more about waiting for your opportunity than it is beating someone out. You’ve got to bide your time and make sure you’re playing the exact same way you’d be playing up there. And when your opportunity comes — because it will, one way or another — you’re playing that game, and that’s how you build your game. I don’t think he’s pressing but there were a few moments early on ... that he felt like he needed to do a lot to get back. But the last four weeks, he’s been real solid in his game. He’s just finetuning his game and waiting for his opportunity.”
O’Gara conceded that was the case.
“Yeah, we butt heads a little bit about that,” O’Gara said with a chuckle. “But he was right. We watched film where I was in the wrong places, where I didn’t need to be. And when I play a simple game is when I’m playing my best. The last few weeks I think I’ve fallen into the right (mode), taking chances at the right time. I’m helping the team in the right way, not doing too much. I think Leachie and (assistant coach Spencer Carbery) have helped me find that happy medium, to help the team the most and play my game.”
What the future holds for O’Gara remains unclear. In 2011, the Bruins used a fifthround pick on the gangly kid out of Milton Academy and watched as he developed into a fine college player at Yale, winning a national championship as a freshman. That development continues. To see him one day in a Boston Bruins uniform on a regular basis would be a nice draft success story for the club.
While there’s no room on the roster right now, he’s part of a large pool of left-shot blue line prospects that includes two first-rounders, Jakub Zboril (2015) and Urho Vaakanainen (2017) and second-rounder Jeremy Lauzon (2015), currently working his way back from a concussion that has kept him out of the Providence lineup for over a month.
O’Gara might be the B’s best trade chip. While the game seems to be forever ramping up with speed, defensemen of O’Gara’s skills
are still valued, especially ones who can play both sides. He could probably step into the lineup of his hometown Islanders and help their battered defense corps right now.
The Ivy Leaguer is an aware kid and he’s heard the trade chatter, but he’s trying his best to block it out.
“Even my parents will bring it up and I’ll say, ‘I don’t even want to think about that. I don’t want to worry about that,’” O’Gara said. “Whatever happens, happens. If I can control it I’m going to and obviously with those kinds of things, I can’t. If I play my best down here and I make myself valuable, then that’s better. Better for the team, better for whoever. I just have to keep that mindset to make myself the best I can be and in that sense help Providence win, because that’s where I am right now and that’s what I want to do.”