On Monday night, the Boston Bruins will begin their ultimate quest to win the Stanley Cup for the seventh time in their history. When the Bruins face the St. Louis Blues next Monday, there will be few special stories being written.
One of those stories will be Charlie Coyle. Coyle, the Weymouth native, grew up just 30 minutes away from Boston and a Bruins fan. Three months ago, he was playing for a team with a bleak playoff outlook. Now he is in the Stanley Cup Final, his first ever, playing for the team he grew up rooting for.
“Growing up 30 minutes out of the city, I obviously fell in love with hockey at a young age looking up to all those old Bruins players. And you envision yourself hopefully doing that one day, but you don’t really think it’s going to come true. It’s such a far thing, so it’s crazy how it’s come to play, I guess,” Coyle said about his time growing up in the area in an interview with The Athletic.
It was really a crazy and wild time for Coyle when he was traded from the Minnesota Wild. His general manager Paul Fenton couldn’t tell him the destination right away, but he promised it would be okay.
“So, I’m like, alright, it’s going to be at least a Cup contender, a playoff contender, or it’s got to be the B’s,” Coyle said of the possibility of his trade to his hometown Bruins. “That’s the best-case scenario, the B’s, right? But I don’t want to get my hopes up.”
Coyle eventually ended up traded to the Bruins in exchange for a late-round pick and Ryan Donato. Immediately after his trade to Boston late in February, Coyle received some calls from his new teammates.
“Honestly, I couldn’t believe it. They’re about to play a game and they take time out to call and say, ‘We can’t wait to have you,’” Coyle said about calls from Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron. “I mean, I haven’t met anyone yet, and I already felt part of the team.”
The 27-year-old versatile forward is no longer just “a part” of the team. With six goals and six assists, good for 12 points in the playoffs, he is one of the most productive and potentially the most consistent Bruins forward. Once, he dreamed about scoring a big-time goal in the playoffs for the Bruins.
“I can’t tell you how many times in my life I’d put the net in front of my driveway and either play with the neighborhood kids or myself and score the big playoff-winning goal for the Bruins,” Coyle reflected. “And then to actually do it in reality…with my family in the crowd, oh my God.”
That was the time when Coyle tied up Game 1 against the Columbus Blue Jackets and then he won it himself. His play has been a major factor so far for the Bruins. And they have certainly felt it with going all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. But that’s not where they want to stop. Neither does Coyle.
When Coyle faces the St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Final, he will know a thing or two about confronting them. In 2015, the Wild defeated the Blues in the first round, while the Blues got their revenge in 2017. The first time around, Coyle matched up against none other than the Blues captain David Backes.
“When we played St. Louis, Backes would be on the radar. He plays rough and tough and we would have some good battles in the corners and stuff,” Coyle said about facing Backes in the heated playoff battles.
This time around, they will both play for the Stanley Cup and facing the Blues.
“To sit next to him in the locker room and just play with him, he’s a great guy and he’s a great leader. And you can tell how much this means to him, just emotionally, you can see it on his face, especially when we won the last series.”
And that wasn’t the only memory for Coyle during this playoffs. After his handshake with his former Minnesota Wild teammate, Nino Niederreiter, Coyle said that the Swiss winger wished him “To just bring home the Cup.”
“Boston is a big hockey town. But we are so, so proud … and excited for these next few weeks,” Coyle said.
