For the first time in a long time, the Boston Bruins will begin a season without the services of Patrice Bergeron or David Krejci at center. It’s not the first time that they will be missing Krejci after he returned to his home country of Czechia following the 2020-21 season to continue his career overseas.
Losing both centers is a huge loss and trying to replace it is going to be very difficult for the Bruins and second-year coach Jim Montgomery. Unless general manager (GM) Don Sweeney makes a trade before training camp on Sept. 20 at Warrior Ice Arena, the two likely candidates to replace the future Hall of Famers are Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle. In the overall big picture, how much success the Black and Gold have this season will rely on those two filling holes of their former teammates at the top of the lineup.
Zacha & Coyle Have Huge Shoes to Fill
Both have played in the lineup for the Bruins the last couple of seasons. In 2022-23, Zacha was on the second line with David Pastrnak and Krejci, but he had to pivot into the middle on multiple times in the regular season when Krejci was injured. He made the move seamlessly and he also had to do it in the first round of the playoff series against the Florida Panthers when the Bruins’ second-line center again was injured.
Regular season or postseason, Zacha handled the assignment with ease. He continued to play in all situations and play well, but now, the sixth overall pick of the 2015 Entry Draft by the New Jersey Devils is going to have to assume the spot over a full 82-game schedule. Is he ready for that? It’s likely that he will take Bergeron’s spot on the top power-play unit with Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, Jake DeBrusk, and Charlie McAvoy. That will force him to win a lot of offensive zone faceoffs. Last season, the power play took a step back, even with Bergeron, because of their lack of winning faceoffs in the offensive zone, which led to pucks being cleared and zone entries not being good.
This is not going to be Coyle’s first time in the top-six if he indeed lands there. Under former coach Bruce Cassidy, he began the 2021-22 season as the second pivot behind Bergeron and he struggled through the first three months. It led to Cassidy making some changes around New Year’s, in which Coyle went down to the third line and Erik Haula slid up to take the second-line center position. Coyle played well the rest of the season on the third line and he continued his strong play last season, but now he’s looking at taking on a bigger role.
Like Zacha, he moved up to the top six against the Panthers in the playoffs and played well. Now he’s going to be expected to handle that spot over a full 82-game season and if history tells us anything, it could be a struggle. One person who thinks that both players will be able to play there is Montgomery.
“I think (Zacha’s ceiling) is significantly higher,” he said. “Not only is he physically prepared, more importantly I believe he’s ready for this mentally for the kind of minutes, the responsibility of having to be played in all situations — which he did really well last year — but they’re going to be more important minutes. But I just think he’s mentally ready. He believes that he can do it. That’s the biggest step for a player. I have a lot of confidence that our top two lines will be very good because I believe Charlie Coyle knows he can do the job and will do the job and Pavel Zacha does too.
“In my mind, this is our team,” he said. “Ever since Krech made it official, we’d been thinking that this would be our team. Honestly, we were preparing this way since mid-June.” (from ‘Jim Montgomery still bullish on the Bruins,’ Boston Herald, Aug. 27, 2023).
You can prepare for it for as long as you want, but until it happens and reality sets in, there’s always going to be doubt about whether or not Zacha and Coyle can handle their news assignments.
Bruins’ Season Success Will Depend on Zacha & Coyle
Can Zacha and Coyle handle the move to the middle in the top six? That’s the question for the upcoming season and the Bruins success will depend on how they handle the move. Morgan Geekie was brought in as a free agent and is a dark horse to take a spot in the middle of the top six, however, Montgomery is going to give his two returning centers the opportunity first.
Related: Boston Bruins 2023-24 Opening Night Lineup Predictions
It’s clear that Montgomery has all the trust for Zacha and Coyle, but it won’t stop Sweeney from needing to step in with a trade at some point in the season. The Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference got better and making the playoffs next spring is going to be difficult for the Black and Gold. Having success up the middle with Zacha and Coyle is going to be key for the 2023-24 Boston season.
