When you’re hot, you’re hot. And, boy, was Charlie Coyle hot in the faceoff circle in the Bruins’ 3-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday at the Garden.

The B’s centerman went 18-for-22 on draws and swept his faceoffs against Leafs’ star pivot Auston Matthews (8-for-8). It got so lopsided Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe elected to sit his best player, Matthews, to start overtime in the hopes of winning a faceoff. As it turned out, Coyle beat David Kampf on the draw and the B’s held possession for most of the OT before finally winning it in the shootout.

Coyle relishes being relied upon in shutdown situations, whether it’s a tough assignment or on the league-leading penalty kill, which has now improved to 38-of-39.

“I take a lot of pride in it,” said Coyle. “We want to be a guy who’s relied on in those tough situations, so if that’s what the team needs and that’s what they want from me then, yeah, I’m going to make it happen and do the best I can with that. There’s a lot of guys who do that in different facets of the game and that’s what makes a good team. I just try to do my part in whatever they ask me to do and it do it the best I can.”

The mano-a-mano matchups like the one he faced against Matthews got the juices flowing.

“You get kind of fired up when you hear before the game, ‘Hey, you’ve got so-and-so’s line,’ ” said Coyle. “It’s like, ‘All right, let’s do this.’ That’s what you’re taught since you were younger. You look at the guy across from you and say, ‘that’s the centerman for me’ and you’ve got to outwork them and outplay them.”

Faceoffs are a funny thing. The best in the business usually only win about 60% of their draws. Coyle improved on his draws last year to post a 52.6% win percentage and his dominant night on Thursday pushed him into the black this year at a 50.9%.

It takes a village to win a draw – and some good fortune.

“I won the first couple and then you start to feel good about yourself,” said Coyle. “But then you get a bounce. You lose it, it hits a ref’s leg and comes back your ways. I had one of those (Thursday) night. And there were a number of times our wingers helped, and our D-men, too. I think Hampus (Lindholm) helped twice, (Brandon Carlo) a couple of times. You get a lot of help from everyone.”

Still, controlling the dot can change how the game is being played. The B’s didn’t win Thursday’s game in OT but they probably should have. They controlled the play and earned a power play that they couldn’t cash in on. It all started with Coyle winning the opening draw and Toronto’s star sitting on the bench.

“That’s a big part right there. You want to get the puck first and take care of it. Then, you grind them down, get a change first and they’re stuck out there. It’s a big part, that faceoff. It doesn’t matter who I’m facing. You just try to do your job,” said Coyle.

Far from zero impact

The fact the Bruins are 9-0-1 and Lindholm is sitting with a 0-0-0 stat line is stunning, almost miraculous, considering the minutes he plays and as active as he is in the offensive zone.

But coach Jim Montgomery and Lindholm aren’t overly concerned about it.

“I think it’s a fluke,” said Montgomery. “We track scoring chances and he doesn’t lead our defensemen with primary scoring chances 5-on-5 but he does total. It’s what you do to contribute to a scoring chance. He’s leading among our defensemen and one of the leaders on our team, so it’s just a matter of time. I talked to him about that. It doesn’t concern me, though I’m sure it concerns him. Individually, we don’t like seeing zeroes, bagels there. But he’s impacting us. We’re 9-0-1 and he’s a huge reason why.”

Lindholm, who played a work horse-like 30 minutes on Thursday because of the depletion of the defense corps, was not sweating it.

“I feel like I’ve had a lot of good chances,” said Lindholm. “I feel pretty good about my game, I feel like I’m creating a lot of chances. You just have to keep doing it. It’s a long year and if I look at the season, I’d rather have points coming at the end of the year than points coming early in the year. We’re winning hockey games and anyone in this league knows, that’s the hardest thing. And if I can help our team win hockey games, that’s what I’m here for.”

Lohrei impresses

The reports from Providence on Mason Lohrei were good but not glowing in his seven games there. Apparently, the rookie likes the bright lights.

“(The Providence coaches) say he played better here (Thursday) night than any game he’d played in Providence. But he was pretty special in my opinion and they agreed, in talking to Ryan Mougenel about how good he was (Thursday),” said Montgomery. “I thought his D-zone was good. One-on-one battles are always something when you get into this league and you’re new to the league and you see how hard guys compete with their sticks and how guys get inside your arms, that’s going to be a learning process for all of our young guys in the lineup right now. And then on the PK, I thought he did a good a job. He’s long and he’s smart and he eats up a lot of space with his feet and length.”

Loose pucks

Derek Forbort (lower body) did not practice but will travel with the team for the Detroit-Dallas trip and is termed day-to-day. Brad Marchand also did not practice but Montgomery said it was just a maintenance day. …

Charlie McAvoy will appeal his four-game suspension through the NHLPA to commissioner Gary Bettman, who hears all appeals of suspensions five games or fewer. Whether McAvoy has much of a shot at reducing penalty – he wasn’t traveling to the two-game trip to Detroit and Dallas, which would be games two and three of the suspension – remains to be seen. McAvoy’s suspension was the same as Calgary’s Rasmus Anderson’s. As bad as the McAvoy hit was, it happened in the heat of a 2-2 game in the middle of the third period. Anderson’s hit on Columbus’ Patrik Laine came in the waning seconds of a game Columbus was going to win, making an intent to injure more clear.

Anderson also appealed his suspension, which was upheld by the commissioner.