How Charlie Coyle, Bruins plan on stepping up after Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci’s retirement

Bruins

“Nobody’s gonna be a Bergeron, however we are able to all put our hand in and ensure we pull the rope a bit of extra.”

The ache from April’s stunning first-round exit within the Stanley Cup Playoffs hasn’t lessened for Charlie Coyle.

The 31-year-old middle doesn’t count on it to subside any time quickly.

“I don’t assume we’ll ever recover from that, actually,” Coyle stated throughout an look on WEEI’s “Gresh and Fauria” present throughout Tuesday’s WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon. “It’s simply, how rapidly can you set it behind you, study from it and transfer on. Use it as motivation. It by no means goes away. How do you employ that, change it to gas to fireplace you up, proper? That’s the way it goes.”

Coyle will want the entire motivation he can get in what stands to be a pivotal season for the Weymouth native.

With each Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci hanging up their skates this summer time, the 2023-24 Bruins have a obvious gap on the prime of their ahead corps with each top-six middle spots vacant.

As anticipated, Coyle is predicted to earn a bump up in Boston’s lineup to open the season, with Bruins coach Jim Montgomery telling the Boston Herald that he plans to fit Coyle subsequent to Brad Marchand and Jake DeBrusk as soon as coaching camp commences subsequent month.

Fellow middle Pavel Zacha can also be in line for extra minutes and tasks as Krejci’s substitute on the second line, with the Czech ahead anticipated to skate alongside David Pastrnak and James van Riemsdyk, primarily based on Montgomery’s feedback.

Coyle acknowledged that the Bruins don’t have the personnel to utterly change each Bergeron and Krejci’s abilities and presence, at the least on a person foundation.

But when Coyle and a number of other different Bruins forwards can take incremental steps of their bigger roles in 2023-24, the veteran centerman believes that the Bruins nonetheless have the means to enhance what ought to already be a really stout defensive unit and goaltending tandem between Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman.

“They’re world-class gamers. And we’re gonna miss them,” Coyle stated of Bergeron and Krejci. “All of us want they might play, they’ve finished a lot for this metropolis. … [But] these are job alternatives proper now, proper? In order that will get me fired up and will get our crew fired up too. … We wish to solidify that tradition that these guys introduced and that’s why our group, our crew, is nice.

“It’s due to that tradition, how we deal with everybody, the usual that’s set, the work ethic, all these little issues is what these guys introduced. So when these guys are gone, how can we emulate it, proper? So now we have plenty of guys step up, sort of put their hand in and ensure everybody’s pulling a bit of bit. As a result of you may’t change these guys individually, you may’t change Bergy and Krejci.”

Though Coyle has largely excelled as a puck-possessing middle on Boston’s third line throughout his 5 years with the Bruins, his viability as a top-six middle is a little bit of a query mark.

When Coyle is on his recreation, he can eat up the clock and drain opposing skaters by taking part in hold away with the puck. Though he’s solely surpassed the 50-point threshold as soon as in his NHL profession, he made main strides in 2022-23 as Boston’s go-to shutdown middle, releasing up extra O-zone begins for Bergeron and Krejci. 

As long as he continues to excel within the D-zone, Coyle may very well be a helpful asset on a revamped two-way prime line for Boston, together with his offensive capabilities lifted subsequent to confirmed wingers similar to Marchand and DeBrusk.

He served admirably as Boston’s first-line middle throughout the first few video games of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs in opposition to the Panthers, though it’s a more durable ask for him to duplicate that manufacturing over the span of 82 video games.