Boston Bruins
“I simply really feel very, very lucky as a result of not lots of people get to do this for so long as I received to, so I really feel very, very fortunate.”
Charlie Coyle had a job to do on Thursday.
The 33-year-old heart has been one of many key cogs on a Blue Jackets group that has surprisingly inserted itself into the Jap Convention playoff race — courtesy of a mid-season heater following the hiring of Rick Bowness as head coach.
A win towards the Bruins on Thursday would have inched the Blue Jackets simply two factors behind Boston for the ultimate wild-card spot within the convention.
However for the entire stakes at play throughout Thursday’s bout on Causeway Avenue, Coyle acknowledged the plain.
There was loads extra racing via his thoughts forward of his first sport again in Boston — the place he spent components of seven seasons as a hometown product and fan favourite.
“Coming to the rink brings again lots of good recollections of taking part in right here and taking part in for the group and, being round household and buddies,” Coyle mentioned Thursday forward of Boston’s eventual 4-2 win over Columbus. “Simply taking part in for the Boston Bruins, fairly lucky and fortunate to play right here and play for thus many nice groups and be taught from lots of completely different gamers and coaches and simply every little thing that comes with it right here.
“I’m simply very fortunate, lucky to have been right here for thus lengthy and play in entrance of my household and buddies and play for an Authentic Six group.”
The Weymouth native made essentially the most of his prolonged stint taking part in for the group he grew up cheering for.
Acquired at 2019 NHL commerce deadline in a swap with Minnesota, a big-bodied heart in Coyle served because the lacking piece in Boston’s pipeline of pivots — giving Boston a matchup nightmare and play-driver on the third line under Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci on the depth chart.
Coyle scored 9 targets and posted 16 factors in Boston’s run to the Stanley Cup Remaining that yr, rapidly ingratiating himself as a franchise fixture with the Bruins.
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In every of his first six seasons with Boston, Coyle punched his ticket to the postseason — serving an identical third-line position in the course of the membership’s record-breaking run in the course of the 2022-23 marketing campaign.
When the wheels got here off for your entire Bruins roster in 2024-25, Coyle was a part of Boston’s prolonged roster teardown in March 2025 — dealt to the Colorado Avalanche in change for Casey Mittelstadt, prospect Will Zellers (16 targets, 10 assists as a freshman at North Dakota), and a 2025 second-round choose (D Liam Pettersson).
Coyle was later traded to the Blue Jackets this previous offseason, the place he has become one in all Columbus’ most dependable foot troopers.
“I’ve coached towards him his entire profession, and I’ve at all times admired the best way he performs the sport — the precise manner. He performs the sport laborious,” Bowness mentioned of Coyle, who has recorded 42 factors in 57 video games to this point this yr with the Blue Jackets. “You then watch him from behind the bench, and also you get to look at him across the room and get to look at him in follow.
“The person’s a real professional. He’s a greater participant than I believed he was, as a result of now you see him in all types of conditions. However for those who’re a younger man in our league, you’re watching him play, you’ll be taught an terrible lot — simply watching how he handles himself, how he practices, how he offers along with his teammates, like he’s only a true professional. He’s simply been an actual delight to be round.”
Coyle acquired a video tribute in the course of the first interval of Thursday’s sport towards Boston, taking in a refrain of cheers from the TD Backyard crowd earlier than he – as anticipated — skated again onto the ice, able to tackle a taxing penalty-kill shift for his membership.
Coyle — set to money on this offseason as an unrestricted free agent — nonetheless believes that Columbus has the means to go on a run down this ultimate stretch of play.
However Thursday’s return to Boston offered the perfect window for the South Shore product to mirror on a particular chapter in his hockey profession.
“The extra you get away from it as time passes and also you assume extra about it, I simply really feel very, very lucky as a result of not lots of people get to do this for so long as I received to, so I really feel very, very fortunate,” Coyle mentioned. “Nothing however grateful and simply feeling very lucky to be proper right here and what they did for me to commerce for me and produce me in and preserve me there so long as they did was simply an superior factor.
“I do know I’ll look again on it as time goes all through my life and consider all the nice instances and all of the recollections that I can convey with me.”
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