DeBrusk accepts being ‘Enemy No. 1’
Edmonton-born Jake DeBrusk had 27 goals this season and six in the playoffs last year. ‘It’s playoff hockey,’ says Bruins winger of hit and being hit
For the time he’s in Toronto with the Boston Bruins, Jake DeBrusk will be Public Enemy No. 1.
“I’ve never really been that before, I guess — Enemy No. 1,” said DeBrusk. “But in saying that, we’re focused on (hockey) as a team. No matter what the distractions are off the ice, we have agreed as a group that we’d keep it internally. That helps, especially when things get out of hand.”
DeBrusk spoke after taking part in Monday’s skate prior to Game 3 against the Maple Leafs , who later learned that centre Nazem Kadri will sit out the rest of the opening round of the playoffs, suspended for crosschecking DeBrusk in Game 2. DeBrusk feared he had a concussion.
“I feel better than anticipated,” said DeBrusk, “especially after the adrenalin (passed). You worry how things will shape up. It’s playoff time as well.”
With 27 goals this season and six in the playoffs last year, the Edmonton-born DeBrusk isn’t the one-note agitator that some in Leaf Nation see. He’s certainly more on the skilled side than his father, Louie, an enforcer-type in a 401-game NHL career.
The Bruins winger grew up in that hockey hotbed of Phoenix, where he played minor hockey with Toronto’s Auston Matthews and Brendan Lemieux of the New York Rangers. Louie DeBrusk and Claude Lemieux, who played 1,215 NHL games, were former Coyotes living in the area — Louie had become a radio analyst and now works for Sportsnet on hockey — and both were involved in local minor hockey, coaching their kids. Matthews was, in some ways, a beneficiary of top-notch instruction in that desert environment.
“I moved around a lot because of my dad,” DeBrusk said. “Obviously then you don’t know. Everyone is just out there trying to have some fun. Playing in Phoenix, you don’t hear too many players come from that area, and to have three guys make it to the NHL is pretty impressive.”
The Bruin says he talks to his father every day about life in the NHL, more so now that he’s the centre of attention in Toronto.
“He was a different player, that’s for sure,” DeBrusk said of his dad. “Just trying to find my game, get into playoff mode and keep going.”
As for how physical the series has been:
“That’s just playoff hockey,” he said. “You’ve got to understand it’s a physical game out there. I licked my wounds a bit after Game1. I understand that’s how the game is going to be played. It doesn’t change my game. It makes me more aware on the ice.”
DeBrusk and Kadri had been going at each other since Game 1. Kadri was accused of slewfooting DeBrusk in the opener. The two had a dust-up in the first period in Game 2, followed by a knee-on-knee hit in the second period that Kadri got the worst of. Then Kadri crosschecked DeBrusk to the head, after DeBrusk ran Patrick Marleau into a stanchion in the third period.
“I was trying to backcheck on the player,” DeBrusk said. “I saw it was him. It’s playoff hockey. Anybody can be hit. I was hit by him a couple of times. Originally, I heard a loud noise. I turned to see what happened. He got up and he was fine.
“I wasn’t necessarily trying to hurt him. I don’t try to hurt guys out there. I just turned and looked and what happened, happened.” That’s when Kadri let loose. Social media exploded, with former NHL agitator Sean Avery leading the pack in Kadri’s defence. He weighed in with a profanity-laced tirade that DeBrusk deserved what Kadri did, for what amounted to a disrespectful “greasy” hit on Marleau.
“There are different things that happen off the ice on social media,” DeBrusk said. “I’ve been getting a little bit of comments and things like that, that aren’t necessarily the nicest. I think it’s one of those things where, it’s playoff hockey. There’s lots of passionate fans here in Canada, especially in Toronto. I’m Canadian. I understand that.”