Charlie Coyle has been a fan of Patrice Bergeron for quite some time, well before he joined his hometown team.
Coyle, a Weymouth, Mass., native will live out a childhood dream Monday night when takes the ice in the Stanley Cup Final donning Black and Gold. The 27-year-old penned a column for The Players’ Tribune leading up to the Bruins’ clash with the St. Louis Blues, which included a recollection of his first encounter with Bergeron.
From The Players’ Tribune:
I still remember the first time I met Patrice Bergeron.
I was only 12 or 13 at the time, and we were playing in a tournament at Bridgewater Arena. The lockout was going on, and we heard the Providence B’s were playing a game there. It must’ve been Patrice’s first year in the league or around that, and he was playing for the P-Bruins at that time since the NHL was shutdown.
I still remember all of us waiting around outside the arena after the game, just to get a glance at some legit, real-life NHL players. When Patrice came out, we were all so pumped. He was giving the guys high fives and signing autographs. I was wide-eyed just being that close to him. I remember one of my teammates going in for a huge hug and he was cool with it. From that moment on, if anyone ever asked, I told them Patrice was the greatest. I was a lifelong fan.
At that time, the idea that we might one day be teammates never crossed my mind. I was an undersized teenager trying to fend off acne — and he was Patrice Bergeron.
That’s one of the reasons why, when I found out I was getting traded to Boston a few months ago, it took me a minute for it to really click, you know?
The Cup Final likely will be a series of surreal moments for Coyle for more reasons than one. Those will begin in Game 1 before what’s sure to be a wildly energetic TD Garden crowd.
