Oreos have been sailing Jake DeBrusk's way during warmups - and he couldn't be happier

For about the first 12 minutes of warmups out on the TD Garden ice, Jake DeBrusk is all business.

The 25-year-old winger checks off all of the boxes of his usual routine — taking rushes with his linemates, peppering his netminder with a few wristers from the slot and shaking off the rust with some stretches. 

But in those few minutes of downtime before the B’s retreat back down the tunnel, it doesn’t take a whole lot of time for DeBrusk’s affable personality to bubble back up to the surface. 

Like a politician greeting his constituents, DeBrusk regularly makes his rounds along the glass — perusing through the sea of black-and-gold sweaters and getting a kick out of the various posters and placards crafted by the B’s faithful. 

For a social butterfly like DeBrusk, sifting through the heaps of playful banter, entertaining declarations and wacky challenges plastered onto these posters stand as a treasured entry in his pregame routine — going as far back as his days with the Swift Current Broncos in the WHL.

“I'm actually really lucky my fans have done some pretty creative things,” DeBrusk told BostonSportsJournal.com on Wednesday. “Kind of goes as the years go on and the longer you play with the team, the more fans you have and all that stuff. But I had some funny ones — more so funny ones in juniors, there were some funny signs. I think I had one where it had a Chipotle theme. And I was in a burrito or something.”

Granted, finding oneself photoshopped into a burrito stands as a pretty effective way to catch the attention of a player gliding along the ice. But so far this year, a few Bruins fans have found another incentivized avenue to interact with DeBrusk during his regular pregame stroll.

“I'll never say no to gifts,” DeBrusk admitted. “That's what it's all about — fan interaction. I always think if anyone's got my jersey on or a sign for me, they're getting a puck automatically if I can see them.”

And much to DeBrusk’s delight, the quid pro quo involves something near and dear to DeBrusk’s heart. 

Disc-shaped? Yep. But not quite what you think. 

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Growing up in Edmonton, the rewards were just about as sweet as the results when it came to his early days playing youth hockey. 

In the DeBrusk household, another game ended with a stuffed stat sheet often meant that a subsequent recompense was not far behind. 

And for DeBrusk, the choice was always the same — Oreo cookies. 

“Always have been,” DeBrusk said of his fondness for those addictive cookies. “That's one of those things that I've had since I've been a little kid and as a reward. I used to get those after I'd score goals. So it's kind of interesting how it's kind of going the other way around.”

These days, DeBrusk doesn’t have to wait until after a game to get his hands on his prized treat. Rather, they’ve been tossed his way before the puck has even been dropped. 

Tuesday marked the third time this season in which DeBrusk has been the lucky recipient of a sleeve of Oreos — heaved over the glass from a group of his top supporters. Twice, he’s seized the prize via a game of Rock Paper Scissors. 

Ahead of Boston’s season opener against the Stars on Oct. 16, he received another offering without anything return — an early birthday present, it turns out. 

“I'll never say no to an Oreo,” DeBrusk said with a laugh. “Even though it's a little bit hard to eat one before a game. But I do eat them after."

Players like DeBrusk are often a beat reporter’s dream — with his musings with the media moving from a standard X’s and O’s hockey chat into a setlist stuffed with wisecracks, anecdotes and rink-rat slang.

A few minutes spent chatting with a gregarious personality like DeBrusk often follows the same linear progression as a Tarantino flick. One minute you might be talking about the process of adopting a shot-first mentality — and the next you’re delving into Marvel movies, his pre-game playlist or his anecdotes of skating into trees while playing pond hockey as a kid.

Given his scattered sentiment on a variety of topics, DeBrusk had to rack his brain to find out how the book got out on his snacking guilty pleasure. 

“I might have said it on a (video game) stream — me and Pasta had a video game stream,” DeBrusk said. “Actually, it might have been on (Spittin’) Chiclets. I think (Paul Bissonnette) was chirping me to Charlie McAvoy or Torey (Krug) or someone. 

“I always get thrown under the bus whenever I go on that thing. I think someone brought up saying that I only eat like Oreos, McDonald's. Although I wish that was true, I'd be 250 pounds.”

As for a preferred flavor of Oreo cookie? 

“I mean you can't really go wrong with many of them. I'd probably say my favorite one that I rarely have — that's probably why I like it the most — is birthday cake, actually. Birthday cake is not bad, but it's one of those ones where you only have maybe one or two cookies and then it gets a little sweet, right? If you're talking full row, I'd probably go with the gold thins or go with just the regular. You can't go wrong with the classic.”

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As entertaining as the optics are of fans tossing Oreos to a player night in and night out, for DeBrusk, the meaning behind such a gesture goes far beyond his snacking habits (although those gold thins might be the preferred move going forward). 

After over a year spent crammed in hotel rooms and shuttling between the rink and his apartment, DeBrusk — like many of us — has relished all of the moments, both big and small, that we took for granted in the times before the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The challenges of last season and those miserable stretches in which DeBrusk’s daily pregame stroll offered nothing but a no-man’s land of empty seats are not lost on the young forward. 

More than anything, it makes every new interaction in this post-COVID world sweeter than anything Nabsico can churn out these days. 

“Any time you have fan interactions or things where we do charity events and stuff like that, it brings out the best in me. I know that and I feel like everyone in this room would say the same thing. But we feed off that so much, especially myself. I think that — whether it's Oreos or whatever is getting chucked over the boards or just little things where you're making eye contact with people, something as simple as that — it's a lot of fun. 

"It makes the game fun. Even when things aren't necessarily going well and you're feeling not too hot coming into a game — you're looking and you got a sign for Oreos? I mean, that's gonna make you feel way better. At least it makes me feel better. You go out, I went to the gas station and people were talking to me — this city is passionate.  It's nice to feel that again.”