Ryan: A 'pissed off' Jake DeBrusk seems ready for chance to prove doubters wrong

Jake DeBrusk needed to make some adjustments ahead of Thursday's matchup against the Rangers.

Not just in terms of his on-ice habits, but also cosmetically as well.

Mired in a season-long scoring skid that prompted Bruce Cassidy to scratch the 24-year-old winger ahead of Tuesday's shootout loss to the Islanders, DeBrusk offered to wipe the slate completely clean — in more ways than one.

Taking to the ice at TD Garden against the Blueshirts, gone were DeBrusk's longer locks — along with any scruff that's grown over the course of a frustrating 2021 campaign.

His trademark Bauer NEXUS ADV stick — usually sticking out like a sore thumb when compared to other twigs due to the hole in the middle of the blade — was also nowhere to be found, with DeBrusk hoping a more standard piece of equipment would hold within it the tallies that had so far eluded him to this point in the year.

"I had the long hair for a while there and I just needed to look a little younger. Feels like everyone thinks I'm kind of done here," DeBrusk said. "That's what the hair was for. I want to thank my hairdresser there in Southie and her son Devin for giving me some tips for tonight."

You may not find a more affable, gregarious personality in the Bruins' locker room than DeBrusk — a player, who, even when offering harsh assessments of his own game in years past, regularly didn't let any skids on the scoresheet dampen his optimism and genial candor.

But, when holding court following Thursday's convincing 4-0 victory over New York, DeBrusk seemed less like the amiable Alberta product, and more like a locked-in B-Rabbit — seconds away from dropping a literary piledriver on Papa Doc & The Leaders of the Free World. (Stick tap to whoever gets the reference.)

"I think that the reason why I played that way tonight was because I was pissed off," a candid DeBrusk remarked, adding: “It’s my job to be the best I can be every single day. There’s obviously distractions. I’m a pretty easy target at the moment. I understand the territory. It’s pretty much warranted. I get that.

"I took it personally for sure. Who wouldn’t? Any time you get scratched, it stings. I was pretty beyond frustrated already. It was a nice little reset for me because I knew I was going to come with some heat today.”

Be it Tuesday's scratching, his season-long struggles, comments from the top brass of the organization or stories printed and published about his game, it was rather evident that DeBrusk got the message  — and was awfully stewed about it.

Unfortunately for the Rangers — he took out said frustrations on them.



In his first game back from his night off, DeBrusk offered a glimpse of the player that Boston is hoping he can be — an active, physical presence that can (and should) light the lamp with regularity. His tally in the second period — standing as his first regular-season, 5v5 goals in over a full year — might have been an emphatic stamp on a return to form for DeBrusk, but it was his adherence to the finer details of the game and overall effort on every shift that drew the most praise from his teammates and coach.

"I think if you look at Jake's previous years he's been here, when he scores, he just catches fire," Brad Marchand said. "And I think he just finds that confidence within himself. And that's a dangerous thing. ... like I said, it's the details that I liked about this game even before his goal. When he's taking care of that, then he's a he's a great player. And we need that out of them. We need him to be a big player if we're going to be a dangerous team and we're going to compete for a Cup."

A trademark tally for DeBrusk usually involves the forward tipping home a puck in the slot or potting a rebound in a scrum, but Thursday was about as crisp a goal as you'd want — with DeBrusk receiving a clean feed from David Krejci and promptly rifling one into twine after finding a soft area of the ice.



Perhaps switching sticks was indeed the good-luck charm DeBrusk needed? After all, as noted by @Bruins_stats on Twitter, DeBrusk had scored 11 goals in 55 games when using his Bauer NEXUS stick — standing as an 8.5 shooting percentage. In his 55 games before that, he had a 12.5% shooting percentage.

"I do notice he uses that that stick with the, whatever type," Cassidy said. "I see it in practice as well. But I did not notice tonight. I did notice him shooting one in the net. That's what I noticed. And I liked it."

Of course, a stick switcheroo was not the primary culprit for DeBrusk's turnaround, as his shifts were far more noticeable beyond something a nice finish and higher shot volume.

"I think just a full reset — I'm not pretty not fairly picky with that kind of stuff, honestly," DeBrusk said about swapping out sticks. "But this year I've been sticking with those sticks and I'm not blaming the stick, it's the player."

Throughout the contest, DeBrusk was physical and engaged — winning puck battles on the wall, blocking shots and even dropping Rangers defenseman Brendan Smith with a heavy check behind New York's net. Even though he hasn't earned his usual power-play reps now that he's been taken off the netfront spot on PP1, DeBrusk made his mark on the penalty kill Thursday (2:07 shorthanded TOI)— nearly setting up a shorthanded tally for Jack Studnicka off of a hard-nosed drive to the net.

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DeBrusk will need to carry the momentum for a game like this moving forward, but it was an awfully encouraging sign for a winger that, when he's on, can absolutely transform Boston's top-six unit, beyond just his goal-scoring talent.

For as much as the new 'do and twig might represent a clean slate, DeBrusk isn't content with taking the blue pill and tuning out the negativity of the last few months.

Based on his postgame comments, he might be playing "pissed off" for a good while now. And, frankly, that's good news if you're the Bruins.

"It's still there," DeBrusk said of his frustrations. "It's still there in the sense of I need to bring that consistently. ...  Obviously, the game is done. It's all happy. It's a different narrative now because it's scored, but I'm keeping that. That's not going away."