NEW YORK CITY — It might be easy to overlook given the five goals and 13 points that the Perfection Line rolled out in a seven-goal offensive explosion against the New York Rangers, but the Bruins also got another important contributor in the 7-4 win over the Blueshirts at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night.
Charlie Coyle scored his first goal of the season in Boston’s 11th game of the year after a dominant training camp segued into a slow start to the regular season. It was part of a four-goal uprising in the second period that tilted the game’s scales in favor of the Black and Gold, and it was a nice piece of teamwork with Charlie McAvoy, as the defenseman wheeled behind the net and fed Coyle, who was cocked and waiting to shoot the puck.
Coyle also added a primary assist on the next Bruins goal scored by Brad Marchand, giving him his first multi-point game of the season. It’s a development that Bruce Cassidy hopes will lead to a hot streak of offensive production from a player who was looking to build on a strong playoff and preseason headed into his first full year in Boston.
“I think he’s played well and he makes our team better and we’ve talked about that. You don’t like the goose egg when you’re a forward and he made some plays. I thought he was really dominant tonight. It wasn’t just [Patrice] Bergeron’s line and I thought Charlie McAvoy was good too,” said Cassidy. “He’s moved around and we’ve asked him to do different things and he just shows up and plays. Hopefully this will get him going offensively. Typically, that’s what happens when you’re fighting it a little bit and it takes a little while to work out of it. He’s played better in that area, has had some looks and hopefully that translates to [Tuesday against the Sharks].”
The 6-foot-3, 218-pounder now has a goal and four points in 11 games for the Bruins, and has been bouncing between the second and third line while alternating linemates with David Krejci in and out of the lineup. The hope is that Krejci is finally healthy and ready to resume as the second-line center and perhaps that could mean Coyle developing chemistry with Danton Heinen and Anders Bjork as a third line capable of doing some damage for the Black and Gold this season.
If nothing else, the goal will allow Coyle to focus more on simply playing strong two-way hockey and less on worrying about any zeroes that were beginning to stack up next to his stat line.
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