Bruins’ Coyle responding to added responsibilities

Scoring a go-ahead power-play goal, and later setting up a shorthanded goal that ends up being the game-winner in a playoff game, usually results in a player achieving at least temporary celebrity status.

That’s not really how it worked out for Charlie Coyle on Saturday afternoon, though — not with the discussion dominated by the departure of No. 1 goalie Tuukka Rask to join his family and the emergence of Jaroslav Halak, who stepped in to make 29 saves in a 3-1 victory [...]

Scoring a go-ahead power-play goal, and later setting up a shorthanded goal that ends up being the game-winner in a playoff game, usually results in a player achieving at least temporary celebrity status.

That’s not really how it worked out for Charlie Coyle on Saturday afternoon, though — not with the discussion dominated by the departure of No. 1 goalie Tuukka Rask to join his family and the emergence of Jaroslav Halak, who stepped in to make 29 saves in a 3-1 victory over the Hurricanes that gave the Bruins a 3-1 lead in their best-of-7 first-round series.

The goaltending situation might have been Saturday’s biggest story, but included was another chapter in Coyle’s emergence as one of the Bruins’ most valuable playoff performers. The goal, a nifty swat of an airborne puck past Hurricanes goalie Petr Mrazek, gave the B’s a 1-0 lead 14 seconds into the first period. The assist, on a perfect pass to Sean Kuraly at the end of a shorthanded, 2-on-1 rush, made it 2-0 at 1 minute, 16 seconds of the third.

Post-season contributions from Coyle are nothing new. The Weymouth, Mass., native tied for the team lead with nine goals over last year’s 24-game run to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final series, and he finished with 16 points — one more than he totaled in 44 playoff games with the Wild, who traded Coyle to his hometown team for Scituate, Mass.’ Ryan Donato on Feb. 20, 2019.

But playing on the first power-play unit? Not always the case. And killing penalties on a relatively full-time basis is definitely new..

Naturally, Coyle loves the workload.

"If you’re not on special teams and there are a lot of penalties, sometimes you kind of get lost with the rhythm of your (even-strength) shifts," said Coyle, who centered yet another new version of the Bruins’ third line on Saturday. "When you’re playing (penalty kill) and power play, you’re always in a situation, no matter what happens during the game."

Coyle’s addition to the penalty-killing rotation — usually teamed with Walpole, Mass., native Chris Wagner, a former teammate with the South Shore Kings — puts him in rare company. Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand are the only other Bruin forwards who play in all manpower situations.

"(Coyle) has added to our penalty kill," coach Bruce Cassidy said. "When he first got here, we didn’t give him as much responsibility there … but he’s kind of pushed his way into that conversation. Good for him."

Coyle’s responsibilities don’t end with special-teams assignments. Cassidy has consistently counted on the 6-foot-3, 220-pound product of Weymouth High School and Thayer Academy to be the big, puck-possessing conscience of a third line that has frequently been altered by injuries, absences and coaching decisions throughout the lineup. In six postseason games since the B’s arrived in the Eastern Conference bubble in Toronto, Coyle has played between five different wingers.

Saturday’s game, in which the Bruins grabbed a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series that continues with Game 4 on Monday at 8 p.m., saw the biggest switch of all: Cassidy took Coyle’s Game 2 wingers, Nick Ritchie and Karson Kuhlman, out of the lineup entirely and replaced them with Kuraly — normally the Bruins’ No. 4 center but a Coyle linemate near the end of the COVID-19 shortened season and in Phase 3 practices — and rookie Jack Studnicka, who had played only one round-robin game (on Aug. 2 against the Flyers).

"(Coyle) is driving a line with Jack Studnicka, a young guy," Cassidy said. "It was (Anders) Bjork in the past, it’s been Ritchie, who hasn’t been here a long time (Ritchie was acquired in a trade with the Ducks in late February), so the onus kind of falls on Charlie to be the leader of that line."

Coyle’s Game 4 linemates, and perhaps the No. 1 power-play assignment, hinge on matters like the availability of scoring leader David Pastrnak, who has missed the last two games with an undisclosed injury, and Cassidy’s overall review of Game 3.

Coyle will take as much as Cassidy wants to feed him.

"I think more players than not are going to find their legs a little more, and it’s easier to stay in the game, (when) you’re involved in all those situations," he said. "If that’s the case, and that’s what they have me doing, then I have to take advantage of that opportunity."

Around the boards

Cassidy said that Pastrnak, who hadn’t skated since Game 1 on Wednesday, was on the ice briefly on Sunday, then worked out in the gym. "Let’s see how he does (Monday) morning," the coach said. "I’d put him at, say, 50-50" to play Game 4. … Cassidy said he swapped texts on Sunday with Rask, and reported that "he’s doing well, his family’s doing well, so that’s very encouraging. … We support Tuuka." On the possibility of Rask returning to the team at some point, Cassidy said: "Should circumstances change, where he feels he can come back to the club, I think we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it." … Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said he "would highly doubt" that winger Andrei Svechnikov, who suffered a right leg injury during a net-front battle with B’s captain Zdeno Chara on Saturday, will play again in this series.