DeBrusk finally reaches goals
B’s winger regains his scoring touch
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The shorthanded Bruins basked yesterday in the final afterglow of Saturday night’s victory against the Coyotes as they checked out of their palatial resort hotel at the base of Camelback Mountain and boarded their buses back to a cold hockey reality.
A relaxing round of golf and a healthy dose of Vitamin D intake were accomplished Sunday and now they have to figure out a way to beat the surprisingly surging Detroit Red Wings (8-2 in their last 10) in the Motor City tomorrow with a still seriously depleted lineup.
Coach Bruce Cassidy said he expects Kevan Miller, out with a hand injury since blocking a shot Oct. 18, to be available to play against the Wings, but that’s it for the good news for the immediate future.
Zdeno Chara still is out for at least a month and both Patrice Bergeron and John Moore, sent home to be evalhelped uated, had not been given prognoses yet but regardless will not be rejoining the team in time for the Detroit game.
So the B’s will have to go with what they have. One player who has risen to the occasion is Jake DeBrusk, who has five goals in his last six games, including what turned out to be the gamewinner Saturday.
Cassidy believes DeBrusk turned a corner a couple of weeks ago.
“I think he’s been more consistent, period,” Cassidy said before the team departed for the airport yesterday. “He had a good start but the puck didn’t go in for him much,, then he fell off a little bit. We had to pick him up a little — ‘Listen, keep playing, Jake. It’s not the end of the world when the puck doesn’t go in.’ So he rededicated himself to attacking a little bitmore, more of a complete game.
“I know that Jay (Pandolfo) and Joe (Sacco) sat down with him, and some linemates, and I think it refocus him. We all sat down with him. I think he’s been very good since then. When you don’t have the chances, that’s when you worry. He’s had the chances and, yes, he’s been very good of late. Maybe he just looks around recognizes that he’s maturing and he’s thinking, ‘Hey, they need me to produce a little more.’ Good for him.”
DeBrusk is up to eight goals, third on the team behind David Pastrnak (17) and Bergeron (nine). Cassidy wasn’t exactly sure when the powwow was with DeBrusk, but believes it was the day before he scored a pair against Vancouver in the otherwise disastrous 8-5 loss at the Garden earlier this month.
“I’m not saying it was a magic potion. It was just a matter of us sitting down and talking to him about what the expectation is, where we thought he was,” Cassidy said. “It wasn’t a beat-down by any means. It was more like, ‘Here’s what’s creeping into your game, circling away from pucks instead of stopping on them, not getting inside on them.’ You show them some good clips from earlier in the year when maybe the puck didn’t go in but you’re getting your chances and it started to happen for him . ... It was good for him.”
If the B’s want to keep winning with their current lineup, they’ll need another player or two to step up like DeBrusk has.