He’s simply “Goalie Bob,” and when it comes to the Bruins, “Goalie Bob” has seen it all.

Following his playing career, which included 173 wins, Essensa embarked on a coaching journey at the suggestion of one-time Bruins coach Rick Bowness. So, he rang up former Coyotes teammate Mike Sullivan and joined the fledgling Bruins coach’s staff in 2003.

He’s been a Bostonian ever since.

Through the regimes of Sullivan, Dave Lewis, Claude Julien, Bruce Cassidy, Jim Montgomery, Joe Sacco, and now Marco Sturm, Essensa has been the mainstay, guiding a host of outstanding netminders, including a couple of Vezina Trophy winners.

“Well, fortunately, Sturmy is lucky No. 7 for me. And fortunately for me, I knew Sturmy before, obviously, as a player when he was here. So, I had a preconceived idea of what he’s going to be like as a coach and whatnot. And sure enough, that’s held fairly true,” Essensa told the Globe recently. “It was probably the same for Butchy. I knew Butchy when he was down in Providence, so I knew him before he came in and Monty was probably one of the few that I probably didn’t know until he came in and made his presence known quickly. But for me, I just appreciate the fact that whoever’s grabbing the helm, they just let me do my thing with my guys. And I think most of them realize that goaltending can be a coach killer if it doesn’t go well. So, they’ve kind of let me do my thing. I’m sorry we lost six in the process, but for the most part, they let me work my way.”

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Goalies never talk too much about strategy, usually their mindset is pretty one track: stop the puck. Subtle system changes on offense or defense aren’t going to affect the guys charged with building a wall in front of the net. It’s kind of the same philosophy for goalie coaches.

“Well, there’s going to be nuances to every system. For us here, Claude’s system kind of bled into Butchy’s system and even Monty’s system,” said Essensa. “There’s a little bit of a difference this year. Obviously, Sturmy brought some of his LA King philosophies with him, which are a little bit different, but that’s just the league. So, our guys are going to see maybe a few more puck handles, a few more dumps than maybe they’ve seen in recent years, and you adjust accordingly. But at the end of the day, nothing really changes for these guys. They just got to keep the puck out or that, regardless of what the guys are doing in front of him.”

Essensa is known for his quick wit and sense of humor — “He knows how to keep things light,” said team president Cam Neely — and is an essential part of the game day routine. From prescout before morning skate to the final buzzer, his hands are full.

“We try to provide our guys with some feedback as to where goalies are getting beat. We’ll have our loops going in the locker room to show them where they’ve given up their last dozen goals and the last half dozen shootout attempts,” said Essensa. “We try to educate our token shootout guys where [opposing goalies] can get exploited if indeed we go to a shootout.”

Then it’s more information for his own goalies.

“We try to pick apart where opposition teams are good, especially on their power play, where they’re having success and who’s the most dangerous guys,” said Essensa. “And then we hop on the ice, get our guys hopefully to feel good, and get them ready for that night.”

When the puck drops, Essensa watches from the ninth floor but is in frequent contact with fellow assistant Steve Spott on the bench.

The view gives him a different perspective. Oftentimes he can see things an ice-level coach might miss.

“For example, if there’s a goal we didn’t like, sometimes we bark at the player, but [Bob] will jump in and say, ‘No, it’s the goalie, this is what he has to do better.’ So, something like that,” said Sturm.

Essensa has helped guide three Vezina Trophy winners during his Bruins tenure — Tim Thomas, Tuukka Rask, and Linus Ullmark — and has left his mark on countless others.

This season, he has helped Jeremy Swayman rebound from a rough 2024-25 season. Swayman entered the Christmas break with 14 of Boston’s 20 wins.

“You look at last year, you miss all the training camp, quite honestly, I don’t care who you are, you miss all training camp, there’s going to be catch up, especially for goalies timing wise,” said Essensa. “And that’s not to give him an excuse for the way things went, but he has a standard that he’d like to keep. He’s got a view of where he should be in terms of his play and where his stature is in the league and it is justified. He has that sort of skill set. So, this year, obviously Olympic year, maybe a little extra attention to those details — not that he wouldn’t have had them anyway. But he’s very focused, very focused on putting last year behind him and getting off to a good start, having a good camp and all having it bleed into the regular season. So not that we’re seeing a different Jeremy Swayman, but we’re just seeing a good pro.”

Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him @globejimmcbride.