Charlie Coyle eager to bump up

The climb for Charlie Coyle to this point in his career has been long and steady. But here he is, on the precipice of being a top-six centerman.

Now he’s just got to grab

it.

With the retirement of both Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, Coyle and Pavel Zacha are now the Bruins’ top two centers this season and it is still a very much unanswered question as to how the team will fare with that structure. But Coyle was a workhorse for the B’s last year. He was second to only David Pastrnak in total minutes played among Bruin forwards, third in evenstrength ice time among B’s forwards and led all B’s forwards in penalty-killing time.

His 16-29-45 totals were the highest since coming to Boston (his career high was 18-38-56 in 2016-17 in Minnesota) and it was the fifth time in his career that he played all 82 games.

It was the kind of season that put him in a good mind frame to take this next step in his career.

“It’s huge,” said the 31-year-old Coyle on Monday prior to getting into his first preseason game. “It does give you confidence in knowing what you’re capable of and what the coaching staff thinks of you when they put you out in certain situations like that. Playing those big minutes is huge. So I want to run with that and keep improving on that. You want to play as much as possible. We all love the game and we all want to play more minutes and play more meaningful minutes. That’s something I look forward to and want to work toward.”

Coach Jim Montgomery has repeatedly expressed confidence in both Coyle and Zacha being able to bump up in the lineup. While neither player has yet to post a really prolific scoring season, they do give opponents a tough size matchup with Coyle being 6-foot-3, 225 pounds and Zacha being 6-foot-4, 200 pounds; both are in terrific physical condition.

“I think (last year) prepared him a lot and I think

Charlie’s a guy who can handle a lot of ice. He’s blessed physically with his size but also with his capabilities and endurance,” said Montgomery. “He’s a guy who can handle a lot of minutes, so it’s nice to have him and Pav. Pav’s very similar. They’re both workhorses, so them playing 19-20 minutes a night, that’s something they can do.”

While the B’s still have a lot of bodies in camp and there are still some moving parts, the best guess right now is that Coyle will center Brad Marchand, who has topped 80 points five times in his career, and Jake Debrusk, who should threaten to score at least 30 goals.

It could be a great chance for Coyle to increase his own production.

“It’s an opportunity that’s available and I’m ready for it,” said Coyle. “I’ve been working toward this my whole career and wanting to play in a role of this caliber. You always want improve your game. You want to be a guy who can be reliable in all situations and that’s what I pride myself on. I want to keep showing that and improving. We all want to play well, play more minutes and that’s something I look forward to, to work toward and just be a better player for this team because I know I can.” …

Quick hits

Matthew Poitras was set to get his third preseason game on Monday in Philadelphia. According to the morning line rushes he was set to center Jesper Boqvist and Marc Mclaughlin, and Montgomery was interested to see how he would respond to a step up in competition.

“He’s getting better every day in camp,” said Montgomery of the 19-year-old. “Now we’re going on the road and usually when you go on the road in the NHL, you get a better lineup of NHL players. And looking at Philly’s lineup, that’s a really good lineup they’ve got going. It’ll be good situation to see how he does on the road.”

If Poitras is deemed not ready for the NHL, he’ll have to go back to junior. The fact that he was getting his third preseason action is a testament to how difficult he’s made management’s decision so far. …

Montgomery said that Boqvist, whom the B’s signed after the Devils did not qualify him, has taken a jump in recent days.

“He started slow but gotten a lot better. And really good, actually,” said Montgomery. “He’s starting to make a lot of smart plays. You see his strengths coming out, which is his speed and skill and his ability to think the game and build our team game. We’ve been happy with his development through camp.” …

Montgomery said that Morgan Geekie, fighting for the third line center spot, is another player who has gotten up to speed.

“We’re starting to see his pace in practice increase and in his work rate,” said Montgomery. “Not everybody has what we have here with the intensity in practice, and that is from our leaders. It’s probably eyeopening. It was for me coming in as a coach.” …

The B’s placed goalie Kyle Keyser on waivers for the purpose of assignment and sent John Farinacci to Providence.