DeBrusk looks to add physicality
Happy to get deal done
Jake DeBrusk has proven to be a pretty good hockey player, good enough in fact to land the two-year deal worth a cap hit of $3.675 million that he signed on Monday.
But, with his first big contract negotiation behind him, the focus is now on not the player he has been in the first three NHL seasons with the Bruins, but rather the player that both he and the organization believe he can become.
DeBrusk has shown an ability to score, and that’s as valuable a trait as you can find in the sport. But there are many ways to impact a game — forechecking, physicality, GM Don Sweeney said even penalty-killing — and it’s up to DeBrusk to tap into those methods when those inevitable scoring dry spells crop up.
DeBrusk feels those aspects should fit well with his skill set.
“I think that especially on the forecheck, I’m one of the fastest guys on the teams and when I’m playing well, I’m skating. I could definitely put more pressure on D-men and be more physical in those corners too,” said DeBrusk on a Zoom call with reporters Tuesday. “It’s not necessarily the right idea if I’m not pushing the pace of play and pushing the forecheck, just getting my stick in there. I feel like I have a decent stick already once I do get in there. I agree with him, just kind of just disrupting plays, disrupting breakouts and it can cause turnovers and obviously can create chaos around the net. I think it actually just goes hand in hand with my game. It’s not necessarily thinking differently. It’s just more, being fully aggressive. Just going all out, all the time is kind of what that means.”
No one expects DeBrusk to play like his father Louie, he of the 1,161 NHL penalty minutes, but he does believe he can be more physical. He had just 35 hits in 65 games last season. The hit stat is not always the best indicator of effectiveness — sometimes it just means a player is always chasing the play — but it can be telling.
If DeBrusk is doing his job on the forecheck, that number should go up.
“That’s my main focus. There is pretty much a glaring aspect of my game that was last year,” said the left wing, who is spending his offseason training — and snow-shoveling — in his native Edmonton. “Throughout this whole process I’ve looked at pretty much every single stat you can find. I looked at some things and to be able to see that is obviously easy to change. There’s no reason why I can’t have a hit per game. And that goes hand in hand with what I was just talking about earlier with the forechecking. I think that that’s been a main focus of mine. I’m not saying I’m going to be running around out there, but obviously, I could finish checks more. That’s usually how I play. That’s how I’ve been known to play. It just didn’t really happen much this year and it’s one thing that I felt like it affected my game a lot. It could open up space for me, my teammates and also just getting the puck. That’s the biggest thing. Obviously, you’re trying to get possession of it. Defenseman don’t think they’re going to get hit, they’ll take an extra second to make that play. It’s just a matter of getting on them as fast as I cans, use my footspeed, use my strengths to get there and then from the rest, it’s just hockey.”
A few times during his still young career, the 24year-old DeBrusk has found himself on the bench when his lack of scoring has infected other parts of his game. But he said he’s been learning how to better cope with scoring droughts.
“I’ve definitely grown. I think I’ve gone through a lot of tough stretches here. Not necessarily tough, but stretches that I didn’t really want to be a part of, that have kind of affected me differently,” he said. “Obviously, young players in this league always deal with it. It’s one of those things where I’m expected to score goals. When it doesn’t go in, it obviously it affects you. I think I’ve grown overall, I’ve played (203 regular season) games. I’ve played a lot of hockey here. It’s one of those things that, you can think about it, you can not think about it. I think the best way to go about it is just go out there and play hockey. Just go out there and play and the stress factor of that just hurts you. It’s kind of one of those things where, sometimes you just need a bounce. It’s just hockey. Obviously, I’d love to score every single game. I think every player in the league would say that. It’s one of those things where, obviously, it comes with consistency and things like that. It’s just a matter of action, the all-around game. What can I do to bring to the game when I’m not scoring? That’s where I’ve really tried to focus on and one thing that I’ll definitely be changing for the rest of my career.”
As for the deal, DeBrusk said that talks originally centered around a longterm deal but as the pandemic hit and the financial landscape become rocky, he came to understand that “common ground” needed to be found on a short deal. And he’s glad that it’s behind him.
“To be honest, yeah, it wasn’t easy,” said DeBrusk. “Obviously, there are bigger things in life than hockey.
I’m in a very lucky position where I was able to come to a contract agreement. And people are losing their lives and their jobs here. But there were some tough days for sure. Especially, living in Edmonton, the pressure of kind of hearing about it all the time. It was one of those things where, it wasn’t like I didn’t want to think about it but I’m very happy this was able to get done and happy for the support I had around me. My family is a 15-minute drive away and I spent a lot of time with them here. I think that kind of helped with that. There were definitely nights that I was obviously thinking a lot. But I think that that’s normal though. I feel like that was just the position that I was put in and it is what it is. I’m very happy and excited to be back in Boston. It’s an honor to be signed here.”