Bruce Cassidy knew 'what buttons to push’ to get Jake DeBrusk going on Sunday night

Jake DeBrusk would be the first one to tell you that Sunday’s 3-2 win over the Sabres was “interesting,” to say the least. 

If you were to glance at the box score, you'd think the winger had a pretty great night at the office.

After all, DeBrusk tallied two goals in a single contest for the first time since April 2, 2019. Those two power-play tallies against the Sabres, scored just 18 seconds apart in the third period, gave Boston the lead for good against Buffalo, helping the B’s extend their winning streak to three games.

And yet, for all of his third-period heroics, DeBrusk spent most of the time at his locker on Sunday discussing what transpired earlier that night during the first period of play.

What happened during that first 20 minutes of action? Well, for DeBrusk — not a whole lot.



Boston might have entered the first intermission with a 1-0 lead against Buffalo, but DeBrusk spent most of that frame planted on the B’s bench — recording just 2:22 of ice time during the period. He logged just four total shifts during that stretch, two of which were under 15 seconds in length, before sitting out the final 11:08 of play in the first. 

Postgame, DeBrusk wasn’t entirely sure what infraction warranted the benching, guessing that his inability to block a Buffalo shot in the early going is likely what led to so much consternation from his head coach.

Bruce Cassidy, who also cut minutes for other younger B’s forwards such as Danton Heinen (only three third-period shifts) didn’t want to delve too deep into what miscue put DeBrusk in the dog house. 

But regardless of what the actual play was, the end result remained the same — Boston’s bench boss wanted to send a clear message to DeBrusk and any other B’s skater not playing to the team’s standards.

“There’s details of the game that we expect and it’s a little bit about some of the message with some of these guys now that are in that,” Cassidy said. “They’ve been in the league but they’re not the (Brad Marchands) of the world. It’s a privilege to put on the Bruins sweater every night. And you might not have your A-game, but you’ve got to bring your B-game to help your team win and be a good pro.

“So that’s a little bit of the message between periods. I didn’t think there was enough of that of late, wasn’t always necessarily tonight, but it kind of festered itself tonight. We delivered it, moved on, and you hope the player takes it to heart and doesn’t take it personal.”

DeBrusk clearly has a nose for the net, with his 11 tallies this year now ranking fourth on the club behind Boston’s big three of David Pastrnak (29), Brad Marchand (19) and Patrice Bergeron (17). But much like last season in which his 27 goals tended to come in bunches, DeBrusk has once again been plagued by scoring droughts during the 2019-20 campaign.

Along with a seven-game goal-less stretch to open this year, DeBrusk was mired in a four-game skid right after finally scoring his first tally on Oct. 19 against the Maple Leafs. But he’s turned the corner recently, scoring six times so far in December — prompting the winger to disagree a bit with the notion that these last few games had put him on thin ice with Cassidy.

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“I think I had a pretty good game against Washington before the break,” DeBrusk said. “Obviously we won our game 3-0 at Buffalo (on Friday). I thought we did some decent things as a line — our line has been kind of up and down through to be honest with you. I didn't think I was on thin ice, but I also understand our relationship and how it's been kind of happening I guess for the last three years. I guess he knows what buttons to push in a sense, but you never want to have that happen to you.”

As a younger player in a Bruins’ locker room teeming with veterans, DeBrusk knows that tough love is often going to be the prescription if his game isn’t up to par with what Cassidy expects. That still doesn’t make a benching any more of an easier pill to swallow, especially in the moment.

“You'd rather it just be all roses, but this is the toughest league in the world and sometimes things happen," DeBrusk said. "You make mistakes and you've just got to do whatever you can to respond. It's not easy to do that, you can go the other way very easily. Like I said, I care and I obviously want to be here and playing hockey. I feel like the team is better when I'm playing good. ... It's one of those things where you never want it to happen as a player, but usually, I respond pretty well."

A mid-game benching is a tried-and-true maneuver that many coaches pull out of their bag of tricks to get a player going, and Cassidy is no stranger to such a move.

For as much as it might have stung DeBrusk to spend most of the first period with a front-row seat to the action, the message was received loud and clear. If Boston wants to be playing to the best of its abilities, DeBrusk needs to be engaged and bringing it every single time he hops over the boards.

If that means Cassidy has to play the bad guy for a night, so be it.

"When they stop responding, I’m probably out the door," Cassidy said of sending messages to his players. "That’s probably what happens with a lot of coaches; I’ll be perfectly honest with you. You have to find a different way to send your message. Right now, they have responded. I think, internally, the message you usually send — listen, as long as it’s not personal and you’re trying to get them to play the right way, I think the guys will back you up on it, I really believe that.

"Only they can speak to that. So, that’s what we’ve got to ensure, that the message is sent in the proper manner, pretty direct, and then give them an opportunity to play their way out of it. It’s not like we buried (DeBrusk) the rest of the game. He was back on the power play, back with (David) Krejci, going to play in his regular shift, so I think that’s part of it too. Hey, give him the opportunity, and he responded. So, like I said, when they stop responding, you have to find a different way. Right now, it’s what I know; that’s how we do it, and so far, so good, I guess.