NHL Notebook: Coyle keeps steaming ahead with career year

Coyle now has a career-high 23 goals on the season and his 54 points are just two points shy of matching his NHL career high (set with the Minnesota Wild during the 2016-17 season) with 13 games still to go in the season. Aside from the faceoff area where Coyle isn’t quite at No. 37 levels, the 32-year-old has adequately stepped into Patrice Bergeron’s skates as a No. 1 center capable of excelling in all situations with strong two-way play.

Truth be told, it was a great game for all of Boston’s pivots as Coyle, Morgan Geekie and Johnny Beecher all had goals and Zacha also had a strong performance in the middle as well during a productive stretch for him.

“They’re all playing really sound 200-foot hockey. I think a couple of guys did a really good job at the dot and I think that’s something that Beecher has added to our team. Zacha had a really good night, and we need to continue to get better there,” said Montgomery. “[Coyle] has been terrific all year. He’s set a career high in goals and I think he will continue to establish career highs in assists, goals and points besides the important minutes he plays for us.”

While all the talk last summer was that the B’s simply HAD to trade for Mark Scheifele or Elias Lindholm when they became available in trade, Coyle has more than met the challenge facing both him and Pavel Zacha after Bergeron and David Krejci retired as NHL players.

“If you ask anybody, if you score a little more and you contribute a little more then you’re going to have a little more confidence, and it builds. Then you just keep it going,” said Coyle. “I just try to play the way I know how to play. You get put into a different role and you try to make the most of that opportunity and rise to that occasion.

“But I’m playing with some pretty good linemates and people who are playing some pretty good hockey. Like that first play I’m just there at the end of a backdoor tap-in and some guys made really good plays to get it there. But you always want to play in a bigger situation and to expand your role. That’s something you work to do. Playing behind some pretty good players over the last couple of years, but then things happen, and guys retire then you see an opportunity in front of you. That’s something a few of us have been working toward when you see a guy like Pavel Zacha doing the same thing. You take the reins, have a little more responsibility added to you and get another year under your belt with experience and leadership roles and things like that. It's all good, positive situations that you want to be in and make the most of it.”

To Coyle’s point, Zacha has also elevated his level of play over the last few weeks and won the offensive zone draw that led to his power-play goal in the second period. But it feels like Coyle has been a consistent foundational piece for this Bruins team that is once again atop the Atlantic Division standings after Saturday night’s win over a Flyers bunch pushing hard for an Eastern Conference playoff spot.

This Black and Gold group wouldn’t be anywhere close to where they are in the standings if Coyle hadn’t elevated his game significantly.

Some of it may simply be about a little more puck luck and a chance to consistently skate with better offensive players around him as he’s teamed with linemate Brad Marchand pretty much all season. But Coyle had to step up and make plays to maintain that spot and convince Bruins management that a frontline center wasn’t a necessary add to this season’s team. Essentially Coyle is playing like he did in the middle of last spring’s playoff series against the Florida Panthers when both Bergeron and Krejci were out of the lineup, and B’s management first had a clue they might be okay down the middle this year.

Coyle served a reminder on Saturday night that he’s done everything possible this season to step up and fill the Bergeron void, and it’s one of the biggest reasons why the Bruins are again amongst the top contenders in the East this year down the stretch into the playoffs.

ONE TIMERS

1. It might surprise you to learn that Pavel Zacha is the leading goal scorer and point guy for the Bruins during the month of March with five goals and 10 points in eight games on just 14 shots on net. Some of it might be the odds evening out after some tough puck luck at times this season, but it also absolutely feels like Zacha has stepped up his game late in the season. Some of it is undoubtedly also the vote of confidence from the B’s when they didn’t go out and get any kind of center help at the NHL trade deadline thereby endorsing Zacha and Coyle as their top two centers the rest of this season. Could that change in the summertime when the Bruins have more salary cap flexibility? It sure could, but for now the Bruins are reaping benefits of Zacha playing with a greater confidence level.

2. It was highly entertaining to see seven goals scored in the third period of Saturday night’s game between the Bruins and Flyers, but the B’s giving away a 5-2 lead after a third-period offensive explosion continues to expose that they have no way to shut things down in the third period of games. On Saturday night they managed to make a play with a late Danton Heinen goal and hold off Philly’s furious comeback, but this continues to feel like a chronic issue that’s going to bury them in the playoffs. “I thought [the Flyers] were very desperate the entire game,” said Jim Montgomery. “I liked the way in the third period that we raised our level overall and established a lead. But we’ve got to learn that you’ve got to close out leads and you can’t just think that it’s over. 

"The other teams are desperate and it’s like a playoff game where there are going to be those momentum and emotional swings. We need to be a little better and a little more mature as a team to close out those games.” 

The question is when exactly are they going to learn this?

3. First impression of Andrew Peeke (19:31 of ice time, a plus-2, six shot attempts, five hits and four blocked shots) was a good one. He picked up his first assist on Saturday night as a member of the Bruins by finding a lane to the net and centering a pass to Johnny Beecher at the front of the net. He looks slightly better than advertised offensively and exactly what the doctor ordered as a shot-blocking, stay-at-home defenseman that’s going to win his share of battles around Boston’s net. He is going to help this team fortify things a bit defensively once he gets acclimated to the system and could flourish with some better defensive coaching in Boston.

4. Stick tap to James van Riemsdyk for hitting the 1,000th NHL game milestone which is always a big deal. JVR is going to wind up with around 15 goals and 45 points, which is solid production for a guy playing on a $1 million contract along with the professionalism that he’s shown amongst a young group this season. It was great to see the New England connections come through in Saturday’s celebration of the achievement with former longtime UNH coach and Melrose native Dick Umile among those congratulating van Riemsdyk on hitting one of the pinnacle moments for veteran NHL players. “Incredibly bright person and player. Understands the game at a high level and has done a lot to help build our game offensively,” said Jim Montgomery. “If you look at the league it went from six [teams] to 12 [teams] to 21 [teams] and even when it got to 21 it was still really hard to get to [1000 games]. It happens a lot more now, but 1000 games has always been a milestone that you are a true pro, of being someone that teammates care about and is effective in the locker room and being effective on the ice or you wouldn’t get to 1,000 games. 

"And all of those things combined? It’s hard to find guys that you can really trust like that all the time. Anybody that gets to 1,000 games is somebody that teammates and coaches have truly trusted.”

5. Spent part of this weekend in Marlborough at the New England Sports Center for the State Hockey Championships put on by Mass Hockey as my son’s Newton Youth Hockey squirts team qualified for the 10U Tier 3 medium tournament. We won’t be taking part in the championship round on Sunday after getting eliminated earlier this weekend but stick salute to Mass Hockey for putting on a great, well-run tournament and making the kids feel like a big deal that were playing in it. Fun was most definitely had by all and all of those hockey people in one place was a great sign of how healthy and vibrant the youth hockey scene is here in our state.