Mike Sullivan said earlier this season that the Penguins were "hopeful" coming into this year that Brian Boyle would be able to bring a scoring touch to the Penguins' lineup.
Sullivan said that he saw it before, when he was Boyle's assistant coach on the Rangers.
Boyle's best seasons offensively came in those years with Sullivan in New York, with a 35-point season (21 goals, 14 assists) in 2010-11 and a 26-point season (11 goals, 15 assists) the following year.
It's a decade later, and Boyle's role is what it is now on the fourth line. He's not often deployed in a way that would have him in a position to contribute on the scoresheet. Among all 20 forwards to have dressed for the Penguins this season, Boyle has seen the lowest rate of offensive zone faceoffs at five-on-five, with just 29.03 percent of his faceoffs coming in the offensive zone.
Boyle scored a goal an assist in the Penguins' 4-2 win over the Hurricanes, bringing his season totals to seven goals and five assists through 46 games.
He's surely already defied all expectations when it comes to what he'd be able to contribute to the Penguins this season.
It was Boyle's goal that opened the scoring in the win, off of a beautiful feed from Teddy Blueger.
"It was just off a forecheck," Boyle said of the play. "We wanted to play to our strengths I think today. (Blueger and Zach Aston-Reese) get onto pucks really well and keep some pucks alive in the O-zone, we want to try to create a little bit more."
He deferred a lot of the credit to the goal to Blueger.
"I tried to finish a check, it gave me a little bit of separation," Boyle said. "Teddy saw me, and I think he thought the D-man did too. So he took it around the net to make the guy commit, and he put it right through him. So I had an open net instead of a short side play, you get the goalie to open up. He does a lot of that work and I get to be the beneficiary."
Boyle later had the primary assist on the game-winner, winning a puck battle along the boards then getting it to Sidney Crosby, who put it into the empty net with a shot from below the goal line. His own goal line:
Boyle, 37, was awarded the team's "Bold Penguin" helmet for the performance getting chosen by another 37-year-old in Jeff Carter:
Keeping the helmet in the '37 club'.
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) March 13, 2022
Veterans Big Jeff Carter and Big Boyler are proving that age is just a number. pic.twitter.com/aMasK080q0
Sullivan pointed to the fourth line as a line that he thought had an especially strong game in the offensive zone in this one, and the numbers back it up. On a night in which the Penguins were out-chanced with 64 shot attempts by the Hurricanes and 24 by the Penguins at five-on-five, the chances when the fourth line was on the ice were more even. Boyle, Blueger and Aston-Reese were on the ice together for a total of 11:15 at five-on-five, and during that time the Penguins attempted four shots and allowed six.
"The goal Brian Boyle scores I think is a terrific example of it," Sullivan said. "They're hard on pucks. They're hard on people. Carolina plays a pretty hard man-on-man game. So if you can beat your check, you might get an opportunity."
Boyle's goal was also just an example of good things happening when you go to the net.
"In my experience, that's where a lot of goals happen, especially for guy like me," he said. "So I'm going to try to get there as much as I can. I like playing there. It's less skating."
Of Boyle's seven goals on the year, he's had some real skilled plays, too. It's hard to forget this between-the-legs shot against the Coyotes in January:
Or this shorthanded goal in Philadelphia just a few weeks prior to that one, just an example of a well-placed shot:
Tristan Jarry said that Boyle "does a lot for us," calling him a "character guy" and pointing to his faceoff and penalty-killing abilities. But one of the areas in which he's contributed the most this season won't show up on the stat sheet.
"I think he's just kind of a mentor for a lot of us," Jarry said. "I think he brings that game every night, and the way he practices, I think that brings a lot. He shows us the way and he's just one of those guys that we could lean on every day."
