DeBrusk plans to improve his game
For the most part, the Bruins’ youth movement was a success.
With as many as a halfdozen rookies in the lineup on any given night, the B’s notched a 50-win season and, though the playoff loss in five games to Tampa Bay was a disappointment, the team advanced from last year’s one-and-done.
The success stories among the kids are varied. Charlie McAvoy very much looks like the next cornerstone defenseman. Sean Kuraly appears to be the quintessential fourth-line center with a chance to rise up a rung. Matt Grzelcyk has proven to be an effective defender.
But if there’s a player in this year’s rookie class that fits best into the mold of old school Bruin, it is Jake DeBrusk. DeBrusk flashed his skill at opportune times, like Game 7 against Toronto when he scored the gamewinning goal. He stuck up for teammates, like when he dropped the gloves with Casey Cizikas after the Islander took a run at McAvoy. And he wasn’t afraid to put his body in harm’s way, as he did in a monster shift in the B’s one win over the Lightning when, after being drilled in front of the net and clearly hurt, he blocked a shot and then dove to get the puck out of the zone.
This rookie season was chock-full of learning experiences — he endured both in-game benchings and getting scratched for entire games — and always came back the better player.
The next step for DeBrusk is learning how to play at a high level every night.
“I think the biggest difference from jumping levels (from the AHL) is just that the NHL is the best league in the world, and you’re playing against the best players in the world every single night, and they’re bringing their best,” DeBrusk said this week. “So, especially in the second half of the year everyone is fighting for playoff spots and ramps it up, so just taking whatever I can from whatever level I was playing to try and incorporate it, but at the same time, I think the biggest thing is to stay consistent with your game, whether you’re getting points or how you’re playing. I think that’s just kind of one of the things that I’m trying to ingrain in myself early and start to find some results.”
When DeBrusk was at his best, he was moving his legs. It was his deceptive speed that wound up getting him the Game 7 winner against the Leafs. Conversely, whenever he found himself sitting on the bench, coach Bruce Cassidy would usually say he didn’t have his legs going.
“I feel like you can always get better in certain areas. I think that my main focus this year is going to be my speed. I think that I can get faster and stronger, just stronger on the pucks,” said DeBrusk. “I think that throughout the second half I was finding that, but at the same time, I know I can work on getting stronger in those areas, and just my overall game.”
He showed plenty of grit. He notched 16-27-43 totals and in the playoffs scored six goals, five in the Toronto series, despite suffering an AC joint shoulder sprain in Game 1 against the Leafs. He aggravated it again in Games 1 and 3 against Tampa Bay. Playing through injury was his last lesson of his rookie season.
“It was something I had to learn to go through,” DeBrusk said. “I played lots of playoffs growing up, but not at this level, especially with that amount of pain. It felt like I couldn’t really do too, too much out there, but at the same time, I wasn’t getting out of the lineup. I believed I could help the team win. It just kind of sucks that we couldn’t pull it through, but at the same time, it was a good learning experience for me to understand what the guys go through, because I’m not the only one for sure.”