At first glance, there seems to be an awful lot to like about Jake DeBrusk’s second full season up in the NHL.
Boston’s second line might have gone through a revolving door of skaters at right wing during the 2018-19 campaign, but DeBrusk was a constant to David Krejci’s left — with the duo logging 717:12 of 5v5 TOI during the year.
Boston had plenty of success whenever that pair was deployed on the ice, with the B’s holding a plus-157 shot attempt differential and tallying 32 5v5 goals (and 21 goals against) during that stretch.
DeBrusk’s final stat line for the regular season boasted 27 goals — good for fourth overall on the Bruins behind the big guns up front in David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron.
And yet, despite nearly breaking through the 30-goal plateau as a 22-year-old winger, DeBrusk was far from satisfied when asked Friday to reflect on the past year.
“I think that was the biggest thing I was focusing on last year, even, was trying not to play well in spurts,” DeBrusk said. “I watched lots of film and I thought my game overall was decent, but there were some patches where you can call it your second-year slump or different things where you hit a bit of a wall. That’s understandable and you try to learn on the fly, I guess is the best way to say it. You try to learn different ways to keep yourself prepared to have better games consistently throughout the year.”
The 2018-19 season certainly had its peaks and valleys when it came to DeBrusk’s production, especially in the O-zone.
In wake of a 2018 postseason in which the rookie lit the lamp six times over 12 playoff bouts, DeBrusk got off to a bit of an ominous start the following fall — only scoring three times and recording zero assists in Boston’s first 13 games.
Another cold stretch kept him off the goal-scoring column for an entire month, with DeBrusk limited to just two helpers over a 13-game run from Jan. 10 to Feb. 10.
But, ever the streaky scorer, DeBrusk followed that slump by casually lighting the lamp 13 times and tallying 22 points over the next 19 games. He wasn't helped after a cheap hit by Nazem Kadri in the first round of the playoffs set him back, but DeBrusk still struggled to settle into a groove during Boston's run to the Cup Final — as he was limited to 4 goals and 11 points over 24 postseason bouts, including just one goal in the seven-game series against the Blues.
The pain of that Game 7 defeat won't subside any time soon for DeBrusk, but looking ahead, the winger is looking to draw whatever positives he can as Boston looks to turn the page to next season.
"You can just go through the playoffs by itself," DeBrusk said of lessons learned this past year. "I felt like I played six years in those three months and learned a lot. Learned how to win, how to win close games, obviously. The hardest lesson was at the end. I think the biggest thing is just staying with the program and understanding what you need to do to bring your game.
"I wasn't happy with my performance, but in saying that, I think that there’s a lot of things I can learn to change me on the mental side of things. There’s different things that you can look at and I played my heart out and played as best as I could."
Improving one's consistency is a season and career-long objective that far more challenging than fine-tuning something a bit more tangible, such as overall strength, conditioning or power behind a shot. But for DeBrusk, it's all in the details — small, minute adjustments that, if followed through, could lead to even more cellys in the promising forward's future.
"That’s the hardest thing to do in this league, put the puck in the net," DeBrusk said. "I think the overall games throughout those (cold) stretches, I think the biggest thing was the details, whether it was defensive zone or just really being keen on getting shots and playing aggressive. Those are things that when pucks weren’t flying in for me, it was one of those times where it was kind of a struggle to find what I was really bringing to the table besides my speed and I think that’s one thing that can help me be consistent. Pucks are’t going in? Bring a game that is hard to play against and I can still generate chances and play my game.”
OTHER NOTES
Here were the lineups for Practice No. 2 of training camp:
Group B
DeBrusk – Krejci - Kuhlman
Blidh – Kuraly – Backes
Fitzgerald – Gaunce – Heinen
Lauko – Lindholm – Wagner
Nordstrom – Frederic – Asselin
Chara – Andersson
Grzelcyk – Didier
Lauzon – Clifton
Sherman
Halak
Lagace
Group A
Bjork - Coyle - Ritchie
Marchand - Studnicka - Senyshyn
Carey - Shen - Pastrnak
Cehlarik - Steen - Koppanen/Lantosi
Krug - Kampfer
Zboril - Breen
Vaakanainen - Petrovic/Zech
Rask
Keyser
Vladar
Both Trent Frederic (lower-body soreness) and Joakim Nordstrom (foot) returned to the main group on Saturday after skating ahead of practice on Friday. Nordstrom wore a red, non-contact sweater. ... For the second practice in a row, both DeBrusk-Krejci-Kuhlman and Bjork-Coyle-Ritchie were kept together during a number of drills, with Cassidy noting post-practice that he has liked what both lines have brought — especially with more of an unknown in that third line.
"Ritchie is new to the team, big guy, gets around, strong on the puck. Been in the league. Let's see if he can form some chemistry. I actually like that line — with Coyle and Bjork," Cassidy said. "Bjork on the left, we brought him up, seems to have better awareness and how to hold on to it and where to go, give and go, that type of thing. Paul Carey looks real good to me, he's a good player. We haven't had him up here for stretches of times, so consistency would be a question I guess ... Zach (Senyshyn) has taken the puck to the net well, we've asked him to do that. I think they've all fared pretty well."
One player who has been slotted all around the lineup so far has been Danton Heinen, which has been looked at as more of a luxury for Cassidy and the Bruins as they test other players in roles such as the third line.
"He's a moving part because he can be a moving part," Cassidy said of Heinen. "We want to see how it shakes out with Krejci and DeBrusk. We want to see how does Lindholm, does that allow us to move Kuraly to a wing or a Coyle? How does Ritchie fit in? How is Backes? Like where do all the pieces go? Danton will end up in there somewhere, because he's played both sides, we have the luxury of sort of fitting him. He's played on every line probably since he's been here."
Stats and graphs via Natural Stat Trick and Corsica,