How Charlie Coyle’s impact in Saturday’s win went far beyond the box score

The Bruins might have entered the first intermission of Saturday’s matinee in a one-goal hole, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort on Charlie Coyle’s part. 

Sure, the Red Wings struck gold on one of their six shots on net against Tuukka Rask in the opening 20 minutes — with Darren Helm’s shorthanded tally giving the visitors a lead just 3:12 into the contest. 

But most of the opening frame consisted of the B’s skating in circles around a tanking Detroit club in the offensive zone — with Bruce Cassidy’s crew often extending possessions by playing keep-away with the biscuit. 

Most of those frustrations for Detroit seemed to manifest whenever Coyle and his line hopped over the boards — and the Red Wings simply did not have an answer. 



Puck luck hasn't exactly been on Boston's side in matchups against Detroit over the last couple of years, but Coyle did his best to flip that script in the opening minutes of Saturday's bout — manhandling the Red Wings' second line of Andreas Athanasiou, Valtteri Filppula and Tyler Bertuzzi on his first shift of the afternoon.

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Just minutes later, Coyle was at it again, using his 6-foot-3, 220-pound frame to protect the puck down low in Grade-A areas of the ice. Jonathan Bernier bit on the center's move behind Detroit's net, but Coyle cut back at the last second after the goalie fell for his bluff. With Bernier out of position, Coyle reached back and attempted to bank the puck in off the mass of skaters in front — but it slipped just wide of the net.

On the official box score, these shifts only yielded one shot on goal from Coyle — and zero points on the board for Boston. But as the game progressed, those draining D-zone shifts spent chasing the B's third-line pivot started to take its toll on Detroit.

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"It really does tire you down, wears you down a bit," Anders Bjork said. "But also, it just gets the other guys antsy, because they feel like they're not doing anything, and that's where mistakes happen. ... I think his puck protection is very effective and it's a lot for the team to handle, not just for the guy guarding him."

As the minutes started to tick away in the second period, a fatigued Red Wings club continued to flirt with danger. Tired legs were late to 50/50 pucks. Extended shifts led to questionable decisions with the puck on players' sticks. Amid these miscues, the Bruins finally pounced — tallying three goals in just 4:29 of ice time to build a lead they would not relinquish in the eventual 4-1 victory.

Coyle's O-zone efforts were rewarded in the middle frame, as he tallied his 13th goal of the year after tipping a Charlie McAvoy shot attempt past Bernier to make it a 3-1 lead at the time. It was a fitting result for the Weymouth native, but the overall assessment of his line's play did not hinge on that goal.

After all, both Coyle and Patrice Bergeron's lines were buzzsaws during 5v5 play for most of the first two periods — with Boston holding an absurd 16-2 edge in shots on goal and 12-2 advantage in scoring chances during the 12:37 of combined 5v5 ice time that both lines logged.

Coyle himself finished with five shots on goal — four of which came from within 17 feet of the Red Wings' net.



Coyle might only be on pace to finish with around 45 points this season, but Cassidy was quick to note that the forward's impact goes far beyond how many points he racks up over the course of 82 games.

"I think it wears you down and frustrates you," Cassidy said of Coyle's efforts.  "If you’re an offensive line and watch a guy ragging the puck the whole time and getting to the net and you’re wasting a lot of energy in your own end not attacking, I think it frustrates, and that can trickle down. You can start barking at your D for not being able to separate the guy from the puck or whoever’s responsibility it is. That’s as much as anything too. It gets the other team off their game. It takes them off their game if they’re not completely focused, and then obviously, the natural part is the fatigue.

"It’s no fun chasing around a man his size and trying to battle back pucks. You don’t have much energy when you do get it. So, that’s the important part. We’d like to see that line finish a little more, obviously. That’s the next step, if they can take it to the point where they can convert on their chances a little better, but his two wingers are young guys; they’re still learning the ropes that way, so we’ll see if that develops. If it does, then they’re going to be really dangerous, whoever is on that line."

Coyle's puck-possession prowess should come in handy once the calendar flips to spring and a heavier brand of hockey becomes the norm during the postseason. The 14-42-4 Red Wings may not be the mismatch that Boston can exploit in May and June. But the Bruins' response on Saturday against a foe that has had their number was another step in the right direction for a club already preparing for a deep Cup run.

“That’s one of the first things I was pretty impressed with when I came over here last year,” Coyle said. “Guys are never down. It’s always positive in here. No matter what happens in the period, we come in, guys talk and say, ‘Hey, let’s stick with it. Keep working hard. We’re playing the right way, it’s gonna come for us.’ We just have that trust in here and in each other and our team as a whole. 

“We just find a way. Sometimes it doesn’t work out, but it's how you come back and stay positive through that and stay with our game. We bring that compete every day, we win our battles, everything just flows after that and our game just kind of comes out and our skill shows and that’s the way we got to play.”