TAMPA, Fla. — In September, at the start of training camp, there was every likelihood Brian Boyle would be going to the AHL.
Four months later, coming up to the halfway mark of the season, Boyle is now a go-to guy for the Rangers.
Head coach John Tortorella knows it. More to the point, so does the 26-year-old center, who entered last night’s match here against the Lightning with 14 goals in 38 games after coming into the season with 12 goals in 107 NHL games.
“I’ve always had these expectations for myself, but obviously it took me some time to reach them,” Boyle said before the Rangers’ 2-1 overtime loss to the Lightning last night. “I know if my work ethic tapers off, I won’t be in the same kind of spot on this team where I’m counted on, but I’m not going to allow that to happen.
“It’s a great feeling coming to the rink knowing that I’m being counted on, that the coach has enough faith to use me in important situations like going on for face-offs in the defensive zone and protecting a one-goal lead late in a game.”
The only counting on Boyle Tortorella did coming into camp involved ticking off the number of centers ahead of him on the depth chart. There were six–Vinny Prospal or Brandon Dubinsky, depending on who would play the middle and who would play the wing; Chris Drury; Artem Anisimov; Erik Christensen; Derek Stepan; and Tim Kennedy.
“I know Brian did the skating thing over the summer [with Canadian Olympian Barbara Underhill], but he doesn’t get enough credit for his mindset approaching camp,” said Tortorella. “He came in with the approach of, ‘You are not going to get rid of me.’
“That was a huge part of it because in this coach’s mind, he was going to Hartford and he knew it.”
Boyle was ticketed for the AHL because he was way too soft a year ago in his first season on Broadway for Tortorella, either unwilling or unable to use his 6-7, 245-pound body to advantage. The Kings had selected Boyle 26th overall in the 2003 Entry Draft. The Rangers acquired him from L.A. at the 2009 Entry Draft in exchange for a third-round pick. It seemed as if general manager Glen Sather had been fleeced.
Past tense.
“He’s a guy I will use in every situation and who has earned that trust,” Tortorella said. “I’ll use him four-on-four, short-handed, in the last minute of periods and games.
“Of course with that, Brian also has to assume the responsibility of what he has become as a player, and he has. He’s been good for a long time now.”
“A long time,” as in the first half of the season. That doesn’t make a year, let alone a career.
“I can’t say I’m surprised by my first half because I’ve always believed in my ability to score goals,” said Boyle, two behind Brandon Dubinsky for the club lead. “I love to score goals.
“I always had these expectations for myself. At my end-of-year meetings with my coaches, they’d ask me what kind of player I thought I could be, and I always said I want to be the guy who can be counted on in every situation.
“That’s where I am now. And I’m going to work as hard to stay there as I did to get there.”