For Coyle, Playing at Home is a Gift

BostonBruins.com - Charlie Coyle has never been shy about his roots.
Upon his arrival to the Bruins just over a year ago, the 28-year-old embraced being the hometown boy in Black & Gold. A native of Weymouth, Mass. - just a 25-minute trip south of TD Garden - Coyle ignored the ideas of added pressure and messy distractions.
To him, playing at home was a gift.
"It's the little things," said Coyle, who was acquired from the Minnesota Wild - where he spent the first seven years of his career - just ahead of last season's trade deadline. "When I was playing in Minnesota, you have a place out there, you come home and you gotta have a place back here, where do you stay?
"You've got to juggle two places and taking care of those little things. Now I don't need to do that. In one place, I can focus…this is where I am now, where I live, [you can] simplify things which is really nice mentally."

And, with roughly a full season and a trip to the Stanley Cup Final under his belt, Coyle believes that being a Bruin has helped him mature - both on and off the ice.
"It's been great, to say the least," Coyle said during a video conference call with the Boston media on Wednesday afternoon. "Seeing my family, being around the place where I grew up and playing hockey here. It's like when you're younger - you grow up where you were born, you're playing hockey, you see your friends and that's pretty much what it is.
"But I'm also part of a great organization, a great team, playing with awesome guys, coaches, everything. It's just top notch. That's two great things right there. I feel very fortunate to be where I am right now."

Though just a few months ago, it was not a certainty that Coyle would remain within the comforts of his home state. Fresh off a stellar performance during the Bruins' run to the Final last spring - he notched 16 points in 24 games - the centerman was slated to become an unrestricted free agent at season's end.
As such, he became one of general manager Don Sweeney's highest priorities.
And on the day before Thanksgiving, the two sides reached a deal to keep Coyle home for the next six years, with Sweeney inking him to a contract worth an average annual cap hit of $5.25 million through the 2025-26 season.
In hindsight, with a global pandemic now putting the NHL - and normal life - on hold, Coyle is quite pleased the deal was reached so early in the season.
"I couldn't be happier," said Coyle, who has 37 points (16 goals, 21 assists) in 70 games this season. "I'm glad things worked out on my end. Not that I was really worried about it, but yeah, this happens and it kind of throws it into a loop. What now? How does that all work? It's just a crazy situation.
"I feel very fortunate to be in the situation I'm in now and to kind of have that already in the past. It means a lot to me and my family. Glad it worked out the way it did. I'm really looking forward to the future."
Right now, however, the future remains cloudy. With the COVID-19 crisis still wreaking havoc across the country and the globe, there is no timeline for when the Bruins might get back on the ice.
"We've never been through anything like this, so it's kind of bizarre," said Coyle. "You don't really know what to expect. Obviously, we're gonna try to finish this thing off and the league is gonna do everything in their power to do that. We'd love to. But what the format's gonna look like, what we can accomplish, I don't know.
"I'm asking the same questions you are and wondering the same things. I hope that we can finish this thing off and do it the right way…I just hope we get back to it and get past this thing and everyone is healthy. That's first and foremost, obviously."
With that optimism in mind, Coyle has done his best to remain in shape, framing his workouts as he would during the offseason, minus any on-ice activities. Like many NHLers, Coyle purchased a Peloton bike (which he said showed up two weeks early) to keep up his conditioning and has tried to keep his hands fresh with some stickhandling around the house.
"It's different not being able to get on the ice, being off for this long," said Coyle, who noted that he's also been binge watching Ozark on Netflix, learning to cook from his girlfriend, Danielle, and taking care of his puppy, Bodie.
"Sort of treating it as my summer training schedule as if the season was over kind of. I'm working out four, five times a week, just doing a lot of bodyweight stuff, been able to get my hands on some weights and some other equipment…just stay sharp with that because you never know what's gonna happen."

Charlie Coyle and Bodie](https://www.nhl.com/bruins/photos/Bruins-pawsitivity-bodie-coyle/g-316253138/p-316253516)

If the NHL season does resume, it could mean playing gameas in empty buildings, a scenario that Coyle acknowledged would be extremely strange. Not being able to feed off of the energy of the fans, he said, would take plenty of getting used to.
"I've thought about that, talking about it with my teammates, friends, my parents," said Coyle. "It's very bizarre to think about playing a meaningful game with no fans in there. It's almost like a practice atmosphere. I don't know what it would be like. I've never played an NHL game where there was no one there.
"It would be a new experience, but if that's what it has to come down to then, yeah, that's what we've got to do. But perfect scenario would be having our fans there and cheering us on. We love playing in front of these guys.
"They bring so much to our team…especially playoff time, there's nothing like it. It wouldn't be the same at all…we'll lose a part of our team."
For Coyle, it is that passion that makes Bruins fans so special. And, in turn, what makes playing in front of his fellow Bostonians so appealing.
"What we're going through now, another obstacle, we all have to come together and do our part to get through this, get past this, and overcome this," said Coyle, while recognizing the seventh anniversary of the Boston Marathon Bombings.
"In these hard times, it helps bring everyone together and working towards a common goal. We all know what that is right now…I think it's a lot about where we're from and the city of Boston as a whole.
"To see everyone come together, the city come together, it makes everyone very proud to be from this area and from Boston. Boston Strong, that whole aspect, it makes you want to keep living by that."