"It's Charlie Night at TD Garden," NESN's Jack Edwards declared during the third period of Sunday night's Bruins-Canadiens game. And so it was, as Charlie McAvoy and Charlie Coyle each scored twice to lead the Bruins to a 5-2 win over Montreal -- Boston's second 5-2 win in as many days.
In a way, though, the Bruins getting four goals from players named Charlie was less important than the fact that they got four goals (five if you count Taylor Hall’s empty-netter) from players not named Brad, Patrice or David.
Going into Sunday, 18 of the Bruins’ 35 goals this season had been scored by a member of the Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak line. The Bruins love the fact that they have such a great top line, but they also know they need more offense from other sources. That’s why they spent money on depth this offseason.
McAvoy and Coyle aren’t among that group of new players, but their offensive outbursts Sunday night were still important developments for this team.
No one was really complaining about the fact that McAvoy only had one goal before Sunday. Asking him to score more goals in addition to everything else the Bruins ask of him -- and they ask an awful lot of him -- wouldn’t be very fair.
But the Bruins do want him to shoot more when he has the opportunity to do so, something they’re asking of all their defensemen as they look to generate more offense from the blue line (they had just five goals from their D entering Sunday).
McAvoy clearly took that message to heart on Sunday, as his seven shots on goal tied Hall for a game high. These weren’t just wrist shots from the blue line, either, although the Bruins will still take those if it’s the best option available.
This was McAvoy being aggressive -- but smart -- jumping into the play. His first goal came from him joining the rush as the trailer and barreling into the slot to bury a rebound off a Hall shot. The second came on the power play, with McAvoy walking into the high slot and firing a shot that deflected off a Montreal stick and past Sam Montembeault.
McAvoy nearly scored another goal off the rush in the first period when he drove into the slot and got off a shot that nearly beat Montembeault five-hole. In Saturday’s win over the Devils, McAvoy had another net drive that helped free up space on a Marchand goal. He had three assists in that game, giving him a five-point weekend that brings him up to fifth among defensemen in points per game (minimum five games) with 12 in 13.
“I think most of the better offensive teams in the National Hockey League have that component, with at least one or two [defensemen] that really add to it,” Bruce Cassidy said after the game. “We’re getting a little bit more. … For Charlie, the amount of time he plays and the amount we’re encouraging him to shoot pucks, that’s good. He had seven or eight attempts, a couple go in. Sometimes that’s what you need.”
Coyle’s two goals, meanwhile, were the sign of life from the Bruins’ bottom three lines that they needed to see. Prior to this weekend, the Bruins had gone four games without an even-strength goal from any of their bottom nine forwards.
Erik Haula changed that in Saturday’s win with his first goal as a Bruin, and Coyle built off it and gave that group something to feel better about going into a nearly full-week break between games (seriously, though, what the heck is up with this schedule???).
Coyle’s first goal gave the Bruins a 3-2 lead with 14:02 left in the game. It was a bit lucky, as Montreal’s Jeff Petry tried to clear away a rebound only to inadvertently fire it off Coyle and into his own net. Still, Coyle was around the net, and Pastrnak had put the puck on net, and getting pucks and bodies to the net is a good formula for creating luck. The second saw Jake DeBrusk take a hit to get the puck into the offensive zone, followed by Coyle swooping in to get the puck and then roof a shot over Montembeault’s shoulder.
Coyle and regular linemates Hall and Nick Foligno were also the ones who led the rush that resulted in McAvoy’s first goal. Foligno was right in front of the net on both of McAvoy’s goals (and actually got run over by McAvoy on the first), bringing the kind of net-front presence the Bruins didn’t have enough of while he was injured. The Bruins’ third line of DeBrusk, Tomas Nosek and Oskar Steen didn’t score on Sunday but did create some good chances from the second period on, another encouraging sign.
“For us as a team, I think when other people are on the scoresheet, it’s always good for the room, good for morale,” Cassidy said. “It’s good for everybody to see, ‘Hey, we can beat you different ways.’ We want to be that team.”
It would be premature to declare the Bruins’ secondary scoring issues completely fixed after this weekend, especially since it wasn’t exactly two Cup contenders they faced. But it was a start, and now the Bruins at least have something they can build off as they look ahead to next weekend.