Hall Powers Bruins to Yet Another Home Victory

BOSTON - Taylor Hall is not your typical third-line NHLer.
The 31-year-old has won a Hart Trophy, reached the 20-goal plateau seven times, and hit the 50-point mark on eight different occasions.
But on this Bruins team, one that is as deep as any Boston squads in recent memory, being a third-liner is hardly an undesirable position.

"Wherever you're slotted, you've got to make the best of your ice time," said Hall. "Charlie Coyle, as a third-line center, that's one of the best third-line centers in the whole league. So, I don't take it as a demotion. I take it as…do what you can with the ice time you're given and the opportunity you're given, and I think we can be a really good line."
Such has been the case for the several games now - and was again on Tuesday night.
Hall struck for two goals - including his first just 1:07 into the contest - to power the Bruins to a 3-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning at TD Garden, which extended Boston's season-opening home winning streak to 13 games.
"He is very accepting of the fact that I'm using him on the third line and we're using him on the second power play because that is what's best for the Boston Bruins," said coach Jim Montgomery. "I can't say enough about his exemplary attitude. He's still getting 15 minutes a night, and some nights he's getting 16, 17 depending on special teams."
Hall has consistently been one of Boston's best players over the past several games - he landed seven shots on goal during the B's Black Friday victory against Carolina - and was finally rewarded on the scoresheet after three straight games without finding the back of the net.
"It's nice to see a couple go in," said Hall. "I felt like I had good legs the last few games and had some chances, especially against Carolina. It's nice to contribute. It's nice to score at home. It's been a while since I've had a multi-goal game, so those are always fun. Just a good win against a good hockey team."

The Calgary native opened the scoring just over a minute into the contest when he cruised through the slot and tipped a Brandon Carlo shot from the point past Tampa goalie Andre Vasilevskiy.
"I felt like I wasn't trying to stick handle or anything like that," Carlo said of letting the shot go from up top. "There's times where that takes time and just simplifying things, just moving through the middle and letting it go with a wrist shot. Last year, a lot of times we had to do slap shots, so it was nice to be able to get that one through."
Hall followed up with his second of the night in the third period when he whacked a one-timer by Vasilevskiy on the power play just 2:49 into the final frame. The play began with strong work by David Krejci and Pavel Zacha to dig the puck out along the wall ahead of some brilliant passing from Hampus Lindholm and Nick Foligno, the latter of whom began to circle the net before firing a feed to Hall in the middle of the slot.
"It was a great play. That's the second time he's done that this year. He fed [Tomas] Nosek, as well," said Hall. "It's just about following up to the net. Knowing Fliggy has really good hands around the net, he's not going to panic. Ten seconds before that, we won a puck battle on the boards after a face-off and got possession back which was huge."
Hall, who had 20 goals and 61 points last year, is on pace for his second career 30-goal season and first since his 39-goal, Hart Trophy-winning campaign in 2017-18. The former first overall pick believes that Montgomery's offensive system has helped him unleash even more of his skills and instincts in the attacking zone.
"I think we have a little bit more latitude to make more plays East-West in the O-zone," said Hall. "Not as much of a shot-quantity team, more of a shot-quality team. It took a few games, personally, for me to get out of the habits of pucks to the net, shoot from everywhere, never a bad play to put it on net. Where I think Monty, he's made a few adjustments in our game where some shots are bad shots, and we want to control pucks.
"I've gotten a lot better at that. I feel more comfortable with that. And as we get going, you're seeing a lotta guys, their skill sets coming out in different ways, and I think I'm one of them."
Montgomery has long been impressed with Hall dating back to his first season in the league with Dallas in 2018-19, noting that the winger's "pace and purpose" has always been evident.
"It was the season after he was MVP that I first coached in the league…you could tell he was an elite player," said Montgomery. "Coming here, I was excited to work with him because he is older now, as far as where he is, his maturity in his game. And what's important to him now is winning. He wants to win a Cup. He wants to be in a dressing room that values winning, that has that pedigree, and I think it shows in the way he is playing."

Boston's bench boss added that Hall and Coyle are complementing each other quite well given how well they both can possess the puck and create time and space.
"Taylor Hall likes to have the puck, and Coyle is good at driving the middle lane, opening up space," said Montgomery. "Charlie is really good at hanging onto the pucks in the offensive zone which allows Taylor time to get open.
"[Hall's] doing a lot of what I call championship-type hockey, things that are helping our team win hockey games. There's a lot of wingers that drive offense like that. [David Pastrnak] is like that, and I think of [New York Rangers' Artemi] Panarin and [Columbus' Johnny] Gaudreau as others."
Despite some struggles when they were paired together to begin last season, Hall believes that his connection with Coyle has grown considerably, which has allowed the Bruins to reunite them of late and further lengthen an already deep forward group.
"I think just games and playing with him and seeing him…I think we're working on our dialogue on the bench - what he sees, what I see, areas that we can contribute and get better at," said Hall. "He's such a good hockey player. He's so strong and he's really good in his own end. Just more games. I think after last year, if I ever got on a line with him again, I had a better idea of what I needed to do and how I needed to play, and I think the line's been really good."

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