Coyle rounds into form
B’s center grinds down Red Wings
If hard work always translated directly to the scoresheet, then Charlie Coyle might be a perennial 40-goal scorer. That, however, is not how hockey works.
Yet this sport does reward a solid work ethic in its own way, and it’s usually a meaningful one. And in the Bruins’ 4-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday, Coyle’s tireless efforts not only were key in wearing down a Wings team that for some inexplicable reason has had the B’s number these last two years, but Coyle also got a cookie for himself out of it, too. Not a bad afternoon for the Weymouth native.
With his redirection of a
Charlie McAvoy shot in the second period, Coyle notched his 13th goal of the season at 12:30 of the second and it was fitting that he scored the goal that put the game firmly in the B’s control at 3-1.
“It’s nice to get rewarded, but it’s another thing sticking with it, knowing that it will come,” said Coyle. “You’re playing the right way, you’re playing well for your team and we want to finish. It’d be nice to get it right away but it’s not always the case. But you don’t get frustrated, you stay positive, you stay with, you keep working and it’s nice to get that result.”
Wings’ goalie Jonathan Bernier stole a win from the B’s a week ago with a 39-save performance in Detroit and, in the first period, it looked like he might do it again. Though the Wings had a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes, the B’s dominated the first, with Coyle’s line in particular setting up residency in the Detroit zone. But Bernier continued his sorcery over the B’s.
At one point, Coyle had a great chance to bank the puck in off a floundering Bernier from behind the net and did exactly what he wanted to do, but the puck clung to the goalie’s legs and stayed out.
“It seemed like he had a magnet on the back of him,” mused Coyle, who has 4-1-5 totals in his lat six games.
But those dominant shifts from the Coyle line served as the body blows that dropped the Wings’ hands and left them open for the Bruins’ clean head shots in the second period. First Charlie McAvoy scored his second of the year to tie it,
Patrice Bergeron scored a shorthanded goal for what turned out to be the gamewinner and, finally, Coyle (five shots, four hits) turned out the lights with his deflection goal. The third period would have been drama-free if not for Brad Marchand’s spectacular assist on David Pastrnak’s 42nd goal.
“It wears you down and it frustrates you as well,” said coach Bruce Cassidy of Coyle’s early shifts. “If you watch a guy ragging the puck the whole time and getting to the net, you’re wasting a lot of energy in your own end, you’re not attacking. And I think it frustrates you. That can trickle down. You can start barking to your D for not being able to separate the guy from the puck. That’s it as much as anything, too. It gets the other team off their game. It takes them out of their game if their not completely focused. And then the natural part of it is the fatigue. It’s no fun chasing around a man his size and, battling back to get the puck, you don’t have much energy when you do get it. That’s the important part. We’d like to see that line finish a little more. Obviously, that’s the next step, if they could take it to the point where they can convert on their chances a little better. But the two wingers are young guys and they’re still learning the ropes, so we’ll see if that develops. If it does, then they’re going to be really dangerous, whoever’s on that line.”
Coyle has played with both Bjork and Heinen before. Heinen played on his right side during the B’s long playoff run with Marcus Johansson on the left side, comprising a very good line for the B’s. But this is just two games in a row where he’s played with both of them.
“We’ve had some good practice time to go over stuff. We talk a lot, but we want to keep improving, keep getting better so that stuff becomes natural for us so we can just play hockey and not think too much out there,” said Coyle.
Whether this becomes the middle six line that will go the distance for the B’s remains to be seen. There are now just four games left before the Feb. 24 trade deadline and, judging from his behavior at the last two deadlines, expect GM Don Sweeney to look to fill his team’s biggest need, which is a scoring winger. Does that presumptive new guy go to Coyle or David Krejci? Everyone assumed Johansson would be Krejci’s winger when the deal was made, but things worked themselves out differently.
Whatever happens, Coyle looks like he’s rounding into the playoff form he displayed last spring. And that’s a very good thing for the Bruins.