The Sunday Read: Inside the Hours, Roles and History of the B’s Equipment Staff

BOSTON –– A 12-year-old Keith Robinson walked into Boston Garden with his father, Walter.

Walter was an electrician with assignments at the rink. He had familiarity with the building after working in the visitors’ NHL dressing room when he was younger. Robinson made himself busy, finding his way down to the benches to fill water bottles.

Robinson stuck around the Boston Bruins’ equipment team for the rest of his adolescence, and when he graduated from Tewksbury High School, a full-time position opened up.

It was midway through the 1988-89 season, and the B’s had to fill the vacancy quickly.

“I was doing construction, but it was so cold that winter that the guys I was working with stopped for a little while because we were working outside. So I wasn’t doing much, and I really didn’t enjoy what I was doing anyway. So when the Bruins asked if I could come in, I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll fill in for the rest of the season.’ Just check it out,” Robinson said. “After that season ended, the equipment manager that hired me actually left, but the new incoming equipment manager, Ken Fleger, I met with him in the summer when he came in and talked to him. He said he wanted to keep me."​

Robinson, who is known better as Keto around the Bruins, has been here ever since. This is his 38th season with the organization. He is now the head equipment manager. The schedule is grueling, the hours are long and the work is far from glamorous. But there’s nothing else that Robinson would rather be doing.

“I enjoyed being around hockey players. They’re awesome and great guys to work with,” he said. “If you love the sport and you don’t have the ability to be on the ice playing it, it seemed like a suitable way for me to stay around. I like hands-on work and physical work. It was a way for me to stay around and be around it.”

​Fleger, affectionately called “Doc,” taught Robinson almost everything he knows. The Hockey Hall of Famer’s plaque sits above the Bruins’ skate sharpener at TD Garden, which is Robinson’s home base. And in time, Robinson became the mentor for the new group of eager equipment staff – who turned out to be his two current partners on the job. Matt Falconer and Keith Babineau.

While the trio has their own stories of getting their start in the Bruins’ locker room, they were all rooted in the same sense of purpose and pride of being a Bostonian and being all-in for the B’s.

Babineau also spent his early days around Boston Garden. His father, Steve Babineau, was and still is a sports photographer who has been capturing the Bruins since the 1970s. Steve would pick Babineau up from school and drive right to the rink.

“I see a kid on the bench, and I was like, ‘What’s that kid doing?’ And he said, ‘Oh, he’s putting tape and water bottles out.’ And I said, ‘Does he need help?’ My dad went down to the equipment guy at the time, Ken Flager. ‘Hey, do you need help? My son is here.’ They said, ‘Sure, bring him down. Let him go down to the visiting room and help out.’” Babineau said. “Shockingly, I started when I was like nine. And I’m 45 now, so whatever that is.”

​Falconer had to put pen to paper to join the group. The Needham native was 16 years old when he sent a letter to then-head equipment manager Peter Henderson asking if he could lend a hand. He learned of Henderson while sneaking down to the living room at night to watch “Bruins Digest” on TV that NESN aired. They did a day-in-the-life spotlight on Henderson.  

​“Growing up playing hockey and loving the Bruins, I was like, ‘That seems like a cool job,’” Falconer said. “As a kid, I loved hockey equipment. I would see what my favorite players were using and want to use the same gear. I was always up on the equipment at the time, so I think it was just two worlds colliding. I was willing to do anything at that point to get my foot in the door.”

His responsibilities started at the B’s old facility in Wilmington. Falconer was still in school, so he would go in for practices and game nights when he could. A driver's license still was not secured; Falconer became a commuter-rail regular, no matter how long the commute. He cracks a smile when thinking back to that very first day on the job.

“It’s funny, that was 25 years ago now, but I still remember everything just because I was so excited about it and I couldn’t believe I was getting a chance to go and do that,” Falconer said. “I remember meeting [Henderson] at the Fleet Center at the time, and then taking the equipment van out to Wilmington. And the team played on the road the night before; I remember getting to the Garden in the morning, and Keto was sleeping in the laundry room. I was like, ‘Holy smokes, there’s a lot that goes into this.’ It’s not just like getting the equipment.”

As Robinson did, Falconer and Babineau worked their way up in the department. Falconer is in his 17th season as an assistant equipment manager, while Babineau is in his fifth after working with the B’s for the visiting-team dressing rooms for the decades prior. Robinson earned the head title in 2010. The three are the team’s engine behind the scenes.

“These guys mean more than people even know. It’s not just the daily work they have to do, especially on the road, being up until four in the morning and getting up again at seven. These guys work. But also, they always have to be in a good mood,” head coach Marco Sturm said. “Players spend a lot of time around those guys, and players have good days and bad days. On bad days, they need those guys to listen, to have a tap on the back, to just be there for them. I think that’s what makes it so unique about hockey; it’s not just the players and coaches – it takes everyone.”

Sturm has been with the equipment staff as both a player and head coach. Robinson, Babineau and Falconer were all with the B’s when Sturm was in Boston from 2005 to 2010. The B’s hiring Sturm as bench boss in June 2025 was a welcome reunion for everyone.

“Even when I was gone, it had been such a long time, we always kind of stayed in touch. Every time I was in town, or they were in town, we always made sure we said hi,” Sturm said. “Just to come back and be around the guys I know; that really helped me to start my head coaching career. I was not really the new guy. I was, but I wasn’t, because of the guys I knew, and especially the staff around me. I knew these guys would have my back. It’s a good feeling to have. It was almost like coming home again, and those guys were the reason.”

Once the final buzzer sounds, media is wrapped and all the fans have filed out of the arena, the equipment group’s night is only just beginning – particularly when the team is on the road trip, flying right to the next city.

“It could be 2:30, 3:00, 4:00 in the morning, you’re hanging gear. And then there’s a possibility that there’s practice the next morning, so you’re only getting two or three hours of sleep. And then you’re doing it all again. Days can be 16 to almost 24 hours straight,” Babineau said. “We all kind of have what we do. Keto and Matty, they go in the dressing room and hang all the player bags; all the wet gear to dry it out, put the heat on. I usually go straight to the coaches’ room. Set up the coaches’ room with their tracksuits, their hoodies, their sneakers, their laundry. Then I move over to the change room, where we hang all the laundry bags for all the players. Put their sandals out, their sneakers out. Everyone has their own stall; it’s in numerical order, and it’s got to look nice and neat. Double-check it before you leave. It usually takes us 45 minutes to an hour to do the whole load-in and hang and put the heat on and try to get a few hours of sleep at the hotel.”

On a day-to-day basis, Robinson and his crew are always around to help. If you think you’re the first one to the rink in the morning, turn the corner into the equipment room, and you will see Robinson, already deep into his work, prepping everyone’s skates to perfection.

“That’s my highest priority – just to make sure the skates are ready for that day. Occasionally there’s something that happened to the skates in the previous game; not just the blades, there are broken blade holders, rivets blew out, stuff like that,” Robinson said.

A lot of the time, players stop by the room just to say hello. There, somehow, despite the lack of sleep and never-ending agenda, is a positive light consistently radiating from beyond their doors. It makes the equipment space a fun place to go, even if for the smallest of tweaks.

“It’s all little different things. If they’re missing something or they want to freshen up a piece of equipment or an undergarment,” Robinson said. “Usually the equipment a lot of guys keep for years – like shoulder pads, shin pads, elbow pads. Pants we freshen up every year, helmets we freshen up more than once a year. So it’s usually little stuff on a daily basis, like their garter belt is too stretched out or broken. Or they need new socks for their skates.”

Robinson, Babineau and Falconer are a well-oiled machine with their process. Not only do they care about their responsibilities, but they care about each other. Spending over 12 hours a day, every day, with people can do that. While on the road, they try to grab dinner if the schedule allows. Some of their favorite spots are Antler Kitchen & Bar in Toronto and Martini Modern Italian in Columbus. Conversation often strays from hockey.

“Keto means the world to me. I feel like I’ve spent more time with Keto in my adult life than anyone else. At the end of the day, he’s the head of the department, but for me, I couldn’t ask for a better mentor to learn from. Not only hockey and equipment related, but life lessons,” Falconer said. “I grew up with him. The most important years of my life were with Keto. When I started, he was the third guy, so he spent a lot of time kind of showing me the ropes and how to do things.”

Babineau was quick to agree with the sentiment.

​“He taught me pretty much everything, and still even to this day, teaches me little things about the job. And more about life – how to treat people. He’s like my second dad just because I’ve known him my whole life pretty much,” he said of Keto. “We’re just a positive family. We’re a family – that’s what we are. We’re with each other more than our own family during the season.”

Being okay with never being home is part of the sacrifice of working in the NHL, especially for this group. It is what makes the workplace bond so vital to success. The summers are good, too.

“There were no proms for me; I missed my college graduation; they sent me my degree in the mail. Weddings, birthdays, holidays – we’ve played on Thanksgiving, we’ve played on Easter,” Falconer said. “You sacrifice a lot, and obviously at this stage of my life, I have a wife and a daughter and spending time away from them is obviously hard. You make up for that time when you’re home or in the offseason. It certainly takes a special person to understand that and be willing to go through it with you. That’s where I am grateful.”

The hockey gods rewarded Falconer for his hours put in. The Bruins were sent to Toronto to enter the 2020 NHL bubble during the Covid-19 pandemic, which was confined mainly to two hotels and Scotiabank Arena. Falconer met a woman named Danielle, who was there working for the league at the time. She is now his wife, and they have a two-year-old daughter named Bella.​

“If it’s not for COVID, I don’t know that I would have ever met her,” Falconer said. “That’s where we met, and then after we got home from the bubble, we continued to talk and hang out, and have been together since. There was a soccer field called BMO Field. There was a restaurant in there that we were allowed to go to. But honestly, most of the time, we were just hanging out on the patio. Hang out and talk and got to know each other pretty well.”

That is an obvious favorite memory for Falconer while on the job. Another for the crew? Being part of the 2011 Stanley Cup Championship. Babineau pulls up pictures of him hoisting the trophy and embracing Robinson and Falconer. The grin doesn’t leave his face for the rest of the chat.

“There’s nothing even close to that. It’s just an unbelievable feeling, and you still think about it to this day,” Babineau said. “I had to tap out eventually because it was like two months of a party every single night. I was finally like, ‘Okay, get this thing away from me.’”

​As it was for the players, every single thing felt worth it – one thousand times over.​

“Someone asked me a couple years before that, ‘How and why do you want to do something with kind of grueling hours for so long?’ And I said, ‘I want to be part of something special,’” Robinson said. “That is why I was sticking around. That’s why I wanted to be here – for that moment. That was a dream come true.”

From watching the Bruins on TV, to sitting in an empty arena with a homework-filled backpack, cleaning stalls for the legends of the game, to sliding on their own championship rings, Robinson, Babineau and Falconer have lived too many lives to count with the B’s.

“The rare thing about our group is we were all Boston kids at one point, growing up loving the Bruins,” Falconer said. “I remember my dad taking me to the old Boston Garden to watch Sweens and Cam play when I was a little kid. Those memories were just such a big part of my life.”

As Falconer realized on his first day on the job, it is a whole lot more than setting up equipment. It is a life of dedication to the cause. Of being a piece of something bigger than themselves. And it still has not gotten old.

“I know why I am here – because of the dues I paid, the late nights and doing all the silly stuff in the beginning. Matty and Babs have done the same working with me. Staying late nights and doing all this stuff. There’s something to be said for that loyalty,” Robinson said. “Although we’re all kind of different personalities, which is, I think, beneficial, we’re all rink rats and have been together for so long. It’s just easy. It is somewhat of a brotherhood.”