The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
O’brien on his role with Avalanche and Big Tuna nickname
Liam O'brien is savouring every minute he spends with the Colorado Avalanche.
The 26-year-old winger from Halifax was called up from the AHL three weeks ago and just played his eighth game on Wednesday against the St. Louis Blues. These are his first NHL games since the 2017-18 season when he made three appearances with the Washington Capitals, increasing his career total at the time to 17 games.
But 13 of those games came in his rookie year in 2014-15 so he's had to exercise plenty of patience between call-ups. And that's only half of the story of why O'brien appreciates where he is so much.
"I was training in August, just doing an off-ice workout, and I completely ruptured my Achilles," said O'brien, who was an unsigned free agent when he hurt himself. "At the time, we had teams that were interested in signing me to an NHL deal but none of them were interested any more because of my injury and how serious it was. The possible missed time and just the recovery time scared them off.
"Colorado was a team that was interested from the very start and I had a lot of interest in coming here as well so they said, 'We'll put you on an AHL one-way deal and then if you get healthy and you play well and you earn it, there might be an opportunity here for you.' That's how it happened in the beginning and now I'm here. I was able to recover thanks to an awesome surgeon in Halifax and a great team of people who helped me get back. It was a six-month recovery, which is super fast, so I was able to get back five games into the American league season."
O'brien threw himself into his AHL campaign with the Colorado Eagles, posting eight points in 12 games and quickly re-establishing his identity as a physical player who can also contribute second-tier offence.
But make no mistake, he knew there was a lot riding on whether he could show he could get back to being the player he was during his first six pro seasons.
"I just went down there and they have a really good coaching staff there. They helped me a lot. I just tried to get back into the swing of things," said O'brien, who joined the Eagles on a oneyear contract.
"There was definitely a lot of pressure but I just tried to remove all that and just focus on playing. I think I was just so grateful that I was even able to play hockey again. I went from not being able to walk, which was a little scary, to being on ice skates playing a game I love again. I was just super happy to be back out there, to be honest, and nothing else really mattered."
After proving himself ahead of anyone's timeline or expectations, the Avalanche rewarded O'brien with an Nhl-level deal on March 30 and have turned him loose in his usual role of stirring the pot and protecting his teammates. The six-foot-one, 215-pound winger has 36 penalty minutes and a couple of lively lively fights in his eight games. He also set up two goals against the Blues on Wednesday to give him three assists since being called up.
"Number one for me is just to play hard every night," O'brien said. "That's just the way that I play the game and if I'm not playing hard, then I'm not doing my job. I don't think anyone really has to tell me that, either. I know that and I know what people expect from me. I'm a seventhyear pro and I know how I need to play the game. So I'm here to play hard, be honest, be detailed and try to chip in offensively."
Like his stops in Washington and with its farm team the Hershey Bears, O'brien is also endearing himself to the fans in Colorado. He generated an overnight popularity with the Eagles and already seems to be gaining a following with the Avalanche.
"I think it's a little too early to get on that train but everybody's been really nice to me ever since I got here, especially the fans," downplayed O'brien. "There have been a couple of fans reach out with some positive comments and whatnot so that's been cool."
What matters most to O'brien is being a good teammate. The best depth players always seem to add value through an intangible element of charisma and likeability, although he said that's not something he makes a conscious effort to cultivate.
"I wouldn't say I go into the rink thinking 'Hey, I've got to be a great locker room guy today or anything like that.' I just try to come in every day with a positive attitude," he said. "I'm a guy who smiles and jokes around. I love to build relationships with teammates so I would just say that I enjoy going to the rink a lot and that's just the way I am."
The legend of O'brien's nickname is perhaps the clearest example of how he fits the description of the prototypical glue guy. Everyone around hockey knows him as 'Big Tuna' to the point the Avalanche and Eagles marketing teams often refer to him by his moniker more than his real name.
It all started with a harmless reference from an old teammate to banter between characters Jim Halpert and Andy Bernard from the popular sitcom The Office.
"It was my first year pro and I was playing with Nate Schmidt. He plays in Vancouver now and he's a really funny guy," said O'brien, whose Twitter handle is @Officialbigtuna. "It was from The Office and he came in one day and he just started yelling at me and calling me Big Tuna. He just loved it so every day after that he kept coming in and calling me Big Tuna.
"Eventually the guys jumped onto it and the coaches jumped onto it and everybody was calling me Tuna. It went from there and then I had Tuna on my sticks and Tuna everywhere. It's just become a thing and it's cool."
O'brien also gives the Avalanche a third Nova Scotian on the roster. Star centre Nathan Mackinnon (Cole Harbour) and defenceman Ryan Graves (Yarmouth) are old friends so Colorado now has the most Bluenose content of any NHL team, by far.
"It's cool," said O'brien, who played junior hockey for the Rimouski Oceanic and Rouynnoranda Huskies. "I was with Shane Bowers as well with the Eagles and there are some other young kids from Nova Scotia (in the system) — Matt Stienburg and there's also Justin Barron, who was the first-round pick last year. And obviously I played against Gravy and Mack growing up so it's pretty special for the three of us to be on the same team. I don't know if it's ever been done before so it's pretty cool."
No one knows how long this NHL run will last but O'brien is coming off his best game with the Avalanche and appears to be fulfilling his role to perfection.
"Right now the position I'm in is just day by day," he said.
"Every opportunity I get, I need to take advantage of it. There's no guarantees or anything like that so I'm just trying to go to the rink every day and do everything I can to stay."