Charlie Coyle is being paid like one of the best third-line centers in the NHL. He has been that for the Bruins in the past, specifically during the 2019 playoffs and the second half of last season.
He has not been that this season, though. Coyle has struggled to produce offensively this year, registering five goals and 10 assists in 46 games. He has not scored a goal since Feb. 28, a stretch of 27 games. In eight games since the trade deadline and a resetting of the Bruins' lines, he has just one assist.
A third line of Coyle, Nick Ritchie and Jake DeBrusk should work in theory -- two big bodies in Coyle and Ritchie that can possess the puck down low, complemented by the speed and shot of DeBrusk. It hasn't worked in reality, though. They haven't created nearly enough scoring chances or spent as much time in the offensive zone as the Bruins would like.
While that is not entirely Coyle's fault, he is the center. He is the one who is supposed to be driving that line, and too often this season he has struggled to do that, regardless of who has been on his wings.
Last week at this time, coach Bruce Cassidy was preaching patience when it came to his new-look third line. This was the trio he wanted there, and he still saw the potential. A week later, he is changing things up, and the biggest change involves Coyle.
In Monday's practice, Coyle moved over to right wing, splitting reps with Jake DeBrusk. Sean Kuraly moved up to center the line, with Ritchie remaining on the left.
Some of those changes had already started in the last two games. With Patrice Bergeron out of the lineup on Friday, Coyle moved up to the top line (which also didn't get him going) and Kuraly centered Ritchie and DeBrusk. That Ritchie-Kuraly-DeBrusk line actually showed some flashes, as they were on the ice for two of the Bruins' third-period goals as the team tried to mount a comeback that ultimately came up short.
On Sunday, Cassidy started the game with Coyle, Ritchie and DeBrusk reunited, but then changed things up in the second period, moving Coyle to wing with Curtis Lazar at center and DeBrusk on the left, and putting Ritchie with Kuraly and Chris Wagner.
During his press conference Monday, Cassidy confirmed that Kuraly will start Tuesday night's game as the third-line center. He didn't tip his hand as to whether it would be Coyle or DeBrusk (who, by the way, is mired in his own nine-game goalless drought) on the right. He also didn't tip his hand as to whether the odd man out there would drop to the fourth line or be a healthy scratch. (UPDATE: Cassidy confirmed on Tuesday that DeBrusk will be a healthy scratch Tuesday, with Coyle playing right wing.)
Either way, it's clear that Cassidy is no longer preaching the patience that he was last week. Now he's changing things up in search of a spark, especially as it relates to Coyle. The hope is that moving Coyle to the wing will help get him more involved offensively.
"We're trying to help some players who are struggling a little bit to get going, so you move them around sometimes," Cassidy said. "Sometimes it's at their behest and sometimes it's just coach's decision. It's a little bit more of, we seem to have identified our top two lines. What do we want out of our third and fourth now? It's at the point in the year where it's, whatever you can do to help us get in the playoffs, and then become a harder team to play against once you're in the playoffs. You've got to start thinking about some of that stuff while still staying in the moment.
"Charlie hasn't found it offensively in a while here. So again, sometimes there's conversations with players where it's, 'Yeah, let's do that. Maybe it'll get me going shooting more.' We've done that with Charlie in the past. We said in the past what we wanted our lineup to look like, but at the same token, we acquired a guy in Lazar who can play fourth-line center. Let's see where he's at. Maybe he's a guy who moves up later if Charlie looks good on the wing. There's a lot of different options there. … We're trying different things here, but like I said, we're running out of runway a little bit."
Coyle seems receptive to the change. He has played right wing in the past, including at times in Boston, and acknowledged that it has helped him be more involved offensively.
"It's more kind of straight-line. You can get in on the forecheck," Coyle said Monday. "When I'm on the wing I'm playing with another centerman, so you kind of trust them. You don't have to play F3. You kind of trust your game to get in on the forecheck. Usually my game, I know in the past that's kind of helped me get into it more. You get in there, you play physical, get your feet moving, be F1, and get your game going right away. I don't mind that at all. We'll see if it works out and just go from there."
While it's clear the move is being made because Coyle is struggling -- you obviously wouldn't be moving your third-line center to the wing if he were playing well -- Coyle is trying to have a positive mindset and treat it as an opportunity.
"It can be a positive if you make it," he said. "There's an opportunity there, with how my game can benefit from that, how our line can benefit from that, and how our team can. That's all you have to do, is use it as a positive no matter what situation you get moved to or whatever it calls for. That's how I'm using it, and we'll see if we can make it work."
The Bruins need Coyle to be a factor come playoffs, preferably as a center. You would imagine that the ideal scenario for Cassidy and Co. is that the move to wing serves a shortcut to jumpstart Coyle's offense and is only temporary, followed by a move back to center in which he would bring that newfound offense to the middle.
We'll see if it works out that way. As Cassidy said, with just nine games left in the regular season, the Bruins are "running out of runway" to land this third line before the playoffs.
