Can Charlie Coyle be an absolute pain in Toronto’s ass?
You can picture the headlines up in Toronto, where the local sports media foams at the mouth as much as any city in North America. “What’s Wrong With Auston Matthews? Charlie Coyle Giving Auston Matthews Trouble! Should Auston Matthews Have A Limb Amputated For Not Winning A Stanley Cup In April?”
That, of course, is if Coyle plays his best hockey during the first-round Stanley Cup Playoff series between the Boston Bruins and Toronto Maple Leafs, which begins Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET at TD Garden. Coyle is likely to draw the matchup in the series, against Leafs center Auston Matthews, who scored a very nice 69 goals to blow away the rest of the league in the regular season.
Nov 2, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews (34) skates against Boston Bruins center Charlie Coyle (13) during the second period at the TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brian Fluharty-USA TODAY Sports
Matthews has arguably the best shot in the hockey world, a lightning-quick release, to go with size, play strength, and impeccable instincts to find open ice. Limiting time and space against a player like this is quite a task.
But Coyle is simply going to have to put his best skate forward to disrupt Matthews, no matter which one of them has the puck. At 6-foot-3 with excellent possession skills and a well-rounded game, Coyle is built to perform in the playoffs.
The B’s will need the best version of Coyle now more than ever. They’ll need him to be their version of Ryan O’Reilly or Sam Bennett, the next-tier center that comes out of nowhere to take over a series against the more heralded star player.
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“I just want to keep doing what I do personally and play the way I know how, and be a force,” Coyle said Thursday. “The atmosphere has picked up, the energy’s picked up, and you want to bring that and play as best you can. I want to do what I can to help our team win and produce and just do what I usually do out there to be the player I can for our team.
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“So, I just want to keep building on that as we keep going here.”
Charlie Coyle, Auston Matthews (John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports)
In an ideal world, Coyle can just smother Matthews in a jiu-jitsu grapple for 23 minutes. That would be holding, so it’s a better bet to get all over Matthews physically while they’re upright. Everyone on the ice will also have to maintain their gaps and choke off passing lanes.
But in terms of the 1-on-1 battle, when Matthews has the puck, the onus is going to be on Coyle that the NHL’s goal-scoring champion lacks room to operate. Matthews scored three goals in four games against the Bruins in the regular season, but the Bruins won all four games and held Matthews off the scoresheet in the last two.
Even if they can’t completely shut down Matthews, a nigh impossible accomplishment, they’d certainly take a similar result.
Charlie Coyle, Auston Matthews (Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports)
“You have to be hard on a guy like that and limit his time and space with the puck,” Coyle said of Matthews. “He’s really good at getting in position to receive the puck, and he’s got linemates who can put it right on his tape for him. And so, you’ve just got to kind of know where he is, especially in our D zone. He likes to loop away after maybe cycling it and kind of find that sweet spot coming down Broadway there in the middle.
“I think it’s not just a one-person job. It’s kind of everyone to be there, be tight, be compact. But he’s a guy who likes to find those scoring areas whether he has the puck or not, and they’re pretty good at getting it to him.”
Coyle’s right that it’s not a one-man job to mitigate the impact of a player the caliber of Matthews, especially when the Leafs have more big-time firepower with the likes of Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and John Tavares. But Coyle is likely to be on the front lines.
Pontus Holmberg, Charlie Coyle (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Another way for Coyle to limit the damage from the Matthews line is to simply keep the puck away from them. It’s simple, not easy. But Coyle is exceptionally hard to knock off the puck once he has it, and if Coyle holding the puck means Matthews has to chase him around, that itself is a small victory.
“I mean, it’s one thing to try to stop a guy in your own zone. But, to hem him down in his own zone and tire him out down there and play big and wear him out and win your battles against a guy like that in his own zone, that’s obviously key, too, to try to tire him out,” Coyle said. “A lot of times you work in your D zone, we all go through it, it’s hard to exert that energy and go down the other end and be a force down there too.”
Charlie Coyle, Tyson Barrie (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
The Bruins are also going to rely on Pavel Zacha to be a force, particularly on offense, as he lines up with David Pastrnak. That duo is grouped with Danton Heinen as the projected lead forward line for the Bruins, based on the most recent practices.
Coyle, meanwhile, is with his usual partner in Brad Marchand, another huge pain in the ass for opponents. Jake DeBrusk rounds out this second forward group, which will be counted on to play more of a 200-foot game and limit the opposition while creating their own scoring opportunities through tough forechecking and victorious puck battles. The good-old-fashioned playoff way.
And they’re probably going to draw the Matthews line across the ice. If the Bruins are going to win a fourth straight playoff series over the Leafs dating back to 2013, the way they play against Matthews will be a major reason why. And Coyle will literally be at the center of it.
Coyle and Zacha better be ready for this challenge, because Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci aren’t walking through that door.
