It really is nuts: Charlie Coyle and his wild ride home to the Stanley Cup final

It was the afternoon of Feb. 20, a week before the trade deadline, and the Wild’s departure time to New York was pushed back because of inclement weather in Minnesota.

Charlie Coyle decided to take advantage of the flight delay by popping into Neil Sheehy’s Bloomington, Minnesota, office, which is close to the airport, for a little neuromuscular therapy session.

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Forty minutes later, Coyle hopped off the NHL agent/therapist’s table, put his spiffy suit back on and was about to head to the airport when he looked at his cell phone and had an “Oh $@&#” moment.

“I had a missed call and a text from (general manager) Paul (Fenton), and so I just knew, obviously,” Coyle told The Athletic during a phone interview Wednesday night. “I called him and he told me I was involved in a trade, so don’t go on the plane. But he couldn’t tell me where I was going yet because it’s not finalized. He felt really bad about it.

“It was so weird because suddenly I’m at a place where I’m not on an NHL team for however many hours. I don’t know where I am. I can’t say goodbye to my teammates. It’s so hard to tell my family, my girlfriend, my friends, ‘I’m traded, we’re going somewhere … but I don’t know where yet.’”

Coyle said the only thing Fenton would divulge was “I think in the end you’ll be OK” with the destination.

“So, I’m like, alright, it’s going to be at least a Cup contender, a playoff contender, or it’s got to be the B’s,” Coyle said of his hometown Bruins. “That’s the best-case scenario, the B’s, right? But I don’t want to get my hopes up.

“So I get home, and I’m refreshing Twitter, and I got the NHL Network on. I’m trying, like, anything. I called my agents. I’m asking my dad. He’s asking around, buddies, everything. I’m like, ‘Someone find out where!’”

Chuck Coyle, Charlie’s dad, was at a funeral for a family member that day. There had been so many rumors all month about his son being on the trading block, all of Chuck’s cousins kept coming up to him and asking, “Is he gonna get traded?”

“I kept saying, ‘I know as much as you,’” Chuck Coyle said by phone Wednesday. “I get home, I’m sitting in the chair when Charlie called me. And he says, ‘Something’s going on.’ I say, ‘What do you mean?’ And he says, ‘I’m being traded, but (Fenton) can’t tell me where. He just said I’ll be happy.’

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“My first thought was it has to be Boston because you heard those rumors before. But it also could have been another Cup contender like Tampa or something. My brother was up the street, he came down, we got the TV going, the computer going, got people calling because they know something’s happened. I’m hearing this, I’m hearing that. It was nuts. It was crazy.”

Over the next few hours, The Athletic Minnesota and Boston reported Charlie Coyle was indeed being traded home. The Bruins had a game that night in Las Vegas and were managing a couple short-term injuries, so the Coyle-for-Ryan Donato-and-an-eventual-fourth-round-pick swap couldn’t be finalized until GM Don Sweeney was comfortable enough to make a roster move.

“Finally, later that night, Paul called me back to confirm it was Boston,” Coyle said. “So that was pretty, … it was very bittersweet. Very bittersweet.

“I’m there in Minnesota for six, seven years and you fall in love with the place and you make a living there and so many great relationships with people and your teammates. And you want to win with them. You want to win no matter how tough it is and what you go through and all that. So you never want to just kind of bug out, you know? But that’s out of my control and that’s what happens.

“It’s weird looking at the Wild’s roster right now and seeing all the new pieces they have and how it can change so drastically. It’s just really weird not finishing the year with the same guys. Just how the business side of it goes sometimes. So you roll with it and you make the best of it and stay positive about it and you hope it works out.”

To say the least, it absolutely has.

As much as Coyle loved playing for the Wild, three months later, it’s gone from bittersweet to only sweet as Coyle and his new team prepares to open the Stanley Cup final Monday night against the St. Louis Blues.

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Coyle has six goals and 12 points and is plus-9 in 17 playoff games. In Game 1 of Boston’s second-round series against Columbus, Coyle forced overtime by tying the game with 4:35 left, then fulfilled a literal lifelong dream he had countless times as a child by scoring the overtime winner in an actual, real-life playoff game.

For your viewing pleasure.@CharlieCoyle_3 | #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/eG9ulEVEsr

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) April 26, 2019

As a kid growing up in Weymouth, Massachusetts, Coyle lived for the Bruins.

From a young age, Coyle’s bedroom was plastered with Bruins posters and he could always be found covered head to toe in Bruins garb. In street hockey, in his vivid imagination, Coyle scored dozens and dozens of overtime winners wearing that black and yellow Bruins sweater.

He’d leap into the air like Bobby Orr, peel himself off the asphalt and pretend to jump into the arms of his make-believe teammates.

You know, things all hockey fanatic youngsters would do while playing on a cul-de-sac.

“I can’t tell you how many times in my life I’d put the net in front of my driveway and either play with the neighborhood kids or myself and score the big playoff-winning goal for the Bruins,” Coyle said. “And then to actually do it in reality … with my family in the crowd, oh my God.”

Well, one person, unfortunately, was not in the crowd.

By happenstance, that one Bruins game against Columbus that his son played the hero role in was the only game during this run for which Chuck Coyle couldn’t make it to TD Garden.

“I mean, everyone else in my family was there, but I was in my house, watching it by myself and I loved every minute of it,” Coyle’s dad said. “I pumped my fists a few times. This was after yelling at the TV a little bit when he coughed up that one puck for a Columbus goal.

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“When he scored the tying goal, I was just like, ‘Yeah! Great! Awesome! Back to even after his mistake.’ Then all of a sudden, boom, the overtime goal! I was just … I was overjoyed. I was sitting in my chair overjoyed. I couldn’t believe it. The phone was ringing off the hook. Crazy.”

The Coyle family has been Bruins diehards forever. In fact, Charlie and Theresa Coyle’s front door 15 miles south of Boston is currently draped with a, “We Want The Cup, Let’s Go Bruins” banner.

As a kid, the only time Coyle would not wear his Bruins jersey to a Bruins game was when his cousin, Tony Amonte, came to town with the Chicago Blackhawks.

“I’d be a Chicago fan for a night. Otherwise, it was Bruins, Bruins, Bruins,” Coyle said. “Growing up 30 minutes out of the city, I obviously fell in love with hockey at a young age looking up to all those old Bruins players. And you envision yourself hopefully doing that one day, but you don’t really think it’s going to come true. It’s such a far thing, so it’s crazy how it’s come to play, I guess.”

Coyle, 27, who played seven years for the Wild, has never been on a team like this.

There is star power, four lines that contribute and know their roles, depth everywhere and a goaltender playing out of his mind.

But what sets the Bruins apart, Coyle says, is their leadership.

He learned that instantly when the trade became official. Right before the Bruins were going to hit the ice against the Golden Knights, Patrice Bergeron and Zdeno Chara called to welcome Coyle to Boston.

“Honestly, I couldn’t believe it,” Coyle said. “They’re about to play a game and they take time out to call and say, ‘We can’t wait to have you,’” Coyle said. “I mean, I haven’t met anyone yet, and I already felt part of the team.”

A similar welcome happened right before Coyle’s first practice with the Bruins. He stepped onto the ice in St. Louis, where he’d soon debut in a Boston uniform, and his new teammates serenaded him with a loud stick tap.

Welcome aboard, @CharlieCoyle_3.#NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/vfBl3gUcIv

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) February 22, 2019

“They do just little stuff like that all the time. It makes you feel good, you know?” Coyle said. “No matter who it is, no matter … especially for me, a new guy coming in and first practice, you’re nervous and not knowing what to expect. And just something little like that just really welcomes you and you feel like you’re a part of the team already.

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“The leadership, they just set the standard and everyone kind of follows. Everyone’s treated the same way. And it’s really, really cool to learn from these guys. When I was in Minnesota, you hear these stories of these guys and how they interact and how good their leadership is, and when you see it firsthand, it really is that way. It’s no wonder that these guys have been so successful and had winning teams and been in the Cup finals three times the last nine years. There’s no question why.”

Coincidentally, the one player Coyle is mostly happy for is longtime NHL vet David Backes, the former Spring Lake Park High standout and Blaine native. When Coyle first broke into the league, Coyle was always compared to Backes and the two had several run-ins during Backes’ days with the Blues.

“Man, did we used to battle,” Coyle said of his now stallmate. “When we played St. Louis, Backes would be on the radar. He plays rough and tough and we would have some good battles in the corners and stuff. So to sit next to him in the locker room and just play with him, he’s a great guy and he’s a great leader. And you can tell how much this means to him, just emotionally, you can see it on his face, especially when we won the last series.”

Speaking of that last series against Carolina, Coyle also had one memorable run-in with former Wild teammate and bosom buddy Nino Niederreiter.

Niederreiter and Coyle are no longer teammates, go at it pretty good pic.twitter.com/bKcVvkfa43

— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) May 15, 2019

“That’s classic Nino, stirring it up, doing his job,” Coyle said, laughing. “You never see me and Nino fight. We’re not going to fight. But I saw him and I was like, ‘Yeah, what the heck,’ you know? We texted a little bit after, and … I love Nino. That was just playoff hockey. It’s just how it goes, you know? It’s nothing personal. It was kind of fun in a way.”

Coyle added with a laugh, “He might have been a little surprised, but it’s all in fun.”

During the post-series handshake line, Coyle and Niederreiter embraced.

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“I said, ‘It was great playing you. You had a great year,’” Coyle said. “And Nino just said, ‘Just bring home the Cup.’”

Life has been an adjustment for Coyle and his family since the trade.

Coyle bought an offseason home a few years back in Hull, Massachusetts, on the beach he grew up going to as a kid. But because of the long commute in traffic, Coyle rented an apartment in the Seaport area of Boston in the same building and area a handful of his buddies live in.

For Coyle’s parents and two older sisters, they have found themselves going from only a handful of Bruins games a year to virtually every one.

“When he got traded, they had that six-game homestand, and I’m not used to going to all games,” Chuck Coyle said. “I get too comfortable sitting in my chair here watching it. Just getting into that routine was crazy. Luckily we know Chris Wagner’s family. Charlie and Chris played together on the South Shore Kings, so they were introducing us, showing us the ropes, introducing us to all the other parents and Bruins personnel. It really went pretty smooth.”

But, Chuck said with a chuckle, “I couldn’t wait for Charlie to go on the road again. It costs me more money him being home even though I’m getting free tickets. Running in there, you’re parking, you’re eating versus going out to Minnesota a couple times a year.”

Coyle’s parents cannot convey how much their son loved Minnesota — “the team, the city, his teammates” — but Chuck said, “It was time for a change. It just made it so much easier coming to Boston. If someone had asked us, ‘Do you really want him coming to Boston?’ we would have probably said, ‘That’s probably not the best thing at his point in his career.’ There’s some pressures there and you know maybe later on in his career it would be better for him.

“But, hey, it’s happened, he’s here, it made the transition easier, he knows his surroundings and look where he is now.”

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As Charlie says, “It really is nuts.”

It’s still sinking in for Chuck and Theresa Coyle that three months ago their son was a member of the Minnesota Wild. Now he’s in the Stanley Cup final with a chance to hoist the Cup while wearing the jersey of his favorite team growing up.

“All of a sudden you talk to a neighbor or something like that and they’ll bring it up and I’ll be, ‘Oh my God, you’re right, this is crazy this is all happening.’ You find yourself pinching yourself every day,” Chuck said, before being interrupted.

“My wife just passed a note in front of me: Tell Minnesota, ‘Thank you.’”

“Yeah, we liked it out there,” Chuck continued. “What a place. It was Charlie’s first home away from home. It was nice to see him kind of grow up there.

“You always wished Minnesota could get to the finals one of these years and my kid being on it. But now, after everything that transpired this February, to go from the high of him getting traded to the Bruins to knowing that they had a good shot to make a run for the Cup, it’s just unbelievable with all the hoopla going on.

“It’s a dream come true for us. I know it is for him, but for a father, a mother, seeing your kid reach that for your hometown team, it’s like … well, it’s nerve-racking, too. You hope everything goes well because Boston is a lot like Minnesota.

“It’s a big hockey town. But we are so, so proud … and excited for these next few weeks. ”

(Top photo: Adam Glanzman / Getty Images)

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