Skilled. Shooter. Tenacious.
Those are common descriptions of a hockey player.
Beast. Animal. Monster.
That's how Bruins forward Charlie Coyle was described by his teammates following Boston's Game 3 win against the Florida Panthers.
"I thought he was better looking than that," Brad Marchand told reporters with a laugh, per team-provided video. "That's actually what I call him is an animal before we go on the ice every period. It's true, you know, he's a special player. He's that big and that skilled and the way he can control the puck."
With Patrice Bergeron back in Boston, the Weymouth native was called upon to center the top line between Marchand and Jake DeBrusk in the pivotal game with Florida.
Coyle not only stepped up in the absence of the captain but learned that second-line center David Krejci was a last-minute scratch, which only added to the pressure for the Bruins.
"He had a different gear last night, you know. He definitely wanted to step up with Bergy, Krejci being out," Marchand said. "And that's why we're such a good team because we have guys like that that can step up at any moment and take over a game, and he did."
Coyle may not have the two-way Selke-type play of Bergeron or even the Matrix-like skating and passing of Krejci, but he held his own and certainly limited Panthers forward Aleksander Barkov's play in the offensive zone. In 19:20 minutes of ice time, Florida's captain managed only two shots. Coyle, on the other hand, scored the second goal for the Bruins when he redirected Marchand's shot in front of the net in the second period.
"Even the battle on his goal that he had with Barkov," Marchand added. "You know, just two big men going at it. And he won that battle and scored a huge goal for our group.
And he, you know, he took over that game, and he was all those things, a beast animal, a goblin, whatever everyone's calling him. But it was fun to watch."
Coyle could draw first-line duty again for the Bruins in Game 4 on Sunday when Boston looks to put a stranglehold on the series before returning home for Game 5 on Wednesday night.
