BOSTON — To put it simply, the Bruins need Jake DeBrusk to be good.
That’s probably a gross oversimplification, but it’s the truth, and Thursday is the perfect example why.
Although David Pastrnak’s hat trick performance in a 5-4 win over the Winnipeg Jets stole the show, it was DeBrusk who provided the two other tallies.
His first score came late in the second period, when he blocked a shot at the blue line and turned it into a breakaway, which he finished with a snipe past Jets netminder Laurent Brossoit. Then in the third period, he scored the game-winner with just over eight minutes to go off a tip-in from a Charlie McAvoy shot from the point.
DeBrusk now has nine points (six goals, three assists) in his last 10 games, and his success has helped elevate the second line.
It’s been a tumultuous campaign for DeBrusk, who was called out by his head coach following Saturday’s loss to the Edmonton Oilers. But now he’s certainly getting going and the question then becomes how can the 23-year-old sustain that success.
“I take it to heart,” DeBrusk said of Cassidy’s comments. “That’s when I play my best is when I use my feet, attack the other team’s defensemen. … I think that I obviously can do more. I haven’t liked my start this year, so going into the second half and just around the All-Star break I’m trying to keep it consistent and find my game a bit.”
Just like DeBrusk himself, Cassidy has some ideas of how the winger can keep this up.
“Jake knows his value to this team. It’s an offensive role, building his 200-foot game,” Bruce Cassidy said after the game. “That’s no different than anybody else, but he makes us better when he’s winning races to pucks, and that’s what he did on those. He squeezed one in, kept one in or blocked a pass down the wall and won a foot race. Maybe they were in a line change; it was hard for me to see, but all of a sudden, he comes out of the pile. The other one was just him putting a puck into an area and going to get it. That’s what you need more of out of Jake, more of that second effort on pucks. That’s what we encourage Jake to do every night, because he has the ability to do that.
“Build his game along the wall, build his defensive structure, good stick, but that part of his game, we’d like to see it every night where he’s in puck pursuit,” Cassidy continued. Now, with Anders (Bjork) on the other side with (David Krejci) gives them a lot of speed. Anders has been good at that, hasn’t had the finish Jake has, so if they can combine the two of them, we feel that we have a threat to score, especially in games like this where their back line was very aggressive in the neutral zone trying to stay up. So, if they make a mistake, all of a sudden, you’re in behind them with that kind of speed, you’ll get in, and he was able to do that a couple of times.”
Bjork seems to be a good fit with Krejci and DeBrusk, so maybe some stability on the second line will help all involved get into a rhythm.
If so, couple that with the success Pastrnak and the top line are having, as well as the fourth line, and the Bruins can become an even more dangerous group.
