It was a regular season to forget for Jake DeBrusk, but it could be shaping up to be a postseason to remember.
It was only three weeks ago that DeBrusk found himself demoted from third-line duty, healthy scratched for two games, and then re-inserted as a fourth-liner.
Coach Bruce Cassidy wanted to see not just more offense from DeBrusk, but more effort. And to DeBrusk’s credit, he brought that upon his return to the lineup and seemed to embrace his fourth-line role rather than sulk over not being higher in the lineup.
He had three points in the Bruins’ final four regular-season games, and has now used that to springboard into a hot start to the postseason that has earned him a promotion back up to the third line.
DeBrusk has scored in each of the first two games of Boston’s first-round series against the Capitals, and as Cassidy noted on Tuesday, they haven’t been flukes. They’ve been goals that he’s earned.
In Game 1, still on the fourth line, he pounced on a loose puck off a faceoff and snapped a quick shot past Vitek Vanecek. In Game 2, now on the third line, he got to the front of the net, positioned himself well and banged in a centering pass from Charlie Coyle after Coyle had drawn Washington goalie Craig Anderson out of position.
Cassidy said there could be an element of the “fresh start” mindset at play in terms of DeBrusk being able to turn the page on the regular season and pick up his game for the playoffs.
“If a guy’s a little bit off, doesn’t meet his quota or numbers or standard [in the regular season], then he does have an opportunity as long as he’s willing to show that he wants to help the team win,” Cassidy said. “That’s it right now. That was the message to some of the guys who maybe weren’t happy with their regular season. I know Jake falls into that category. Help the team win. That might be in a number of different ways.
“For him, he has the ability to be a wild card in terms of scoring goals for us. He has done it in the playoffs, he has done it in the regular season, and he’s doing it now. Good for Jake. And they’re not lucky. He’s gone to the front of the net. He’s shot the puck. So they weren’t just fluky goals. They were well earned. He’s invested. That’s what we need. Good for Jake.”
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Cassidy called on his top players to deliver more after Game 1, and while the top two lines certainly did -- with Patrice Bergeron, Taylor Hall and Brad Marchand all scoring goals -- it was Charlie McAvoy who was the Bruins’ best player Monday night despite not registering a point.
McAvoy was on the ice for all four Bruins goals and had a plus-4 rating in nearly 27 minutes of ice time. In his 20 minutes of even-strength ice time, the Bruins led the Capitals 44-21 in shot attempts, 28-11 in shots on goal, 14-4 in high-danger chances, and 4-0 in goals.
In the third period, at a time when some players might need a little more rest, especially in such a physical game, McAvoy played 9:39 total in the period and 5:06 in the final 8:51 of regulation. It’s that ability to play a lot of minutes at such a high level, with only short breaks between shifts, that leaves Cassidy wondering if maybe McAvoy just freakish lungs or something.
“More and more is getting put on his plate, because he’s able to handle it,” Cassidy said of McAvoy. “We’ll keep an eye on it, but I guess that summarizes his year, is that everything we give him, he seems to excel at. Obviously still a young guy in this league that’s only going to get better. Has a tremendous ceiling. Seems to get highly motivated for the bright lights.
“And the thing that goes unnoticed with Charlie is he plays a lot of hard minutes and he recovers well. He just has a real good ability to sort of reset and get back out there. I don’t know if he’s got extra large lungs or what, but he’s a guy who can recover and get back to a top level again very quickly.”
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Cassidy provided a couple injury updates on Tuesday, saying that Jeremy Lauzon remains out for Wednesday’s Game 3, while Kevan Miller “should be good to go.”
Lauzon suffered an injury in Game 1 when he took a shot off his right hand and has not practiced since. Miller missed a good chunk of the first period in Game 2, leading to some concern that he had re-injured his knee, but Cassidy revealed it was unrelated to his knee and was actually a “nasty cut” that needed to be stitched up.
Connor Clifton entered the lineup in Lauzon’s place, and probably earned himself another game regardless of Lauzon and Miller’s statuses. Clifton saw more of the Capitals’ top line of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Anthony Mantha than any other Bruins defenseman, and more than held his own against them, with the Bruins holding a 55.6% share of shot attempts with Clifton and Ovechkin both on the ice.
His skating, agility and ability to play physical against bigger players served him well against a heavy forechecking line that in Game 1 was able to pin in the less mobile Lauzon-Miller pairing.
“Real good job,” Cassidy said of Clifton’s game. “…I thought he did a good job staying clean. That was the ask. I guess how to frame it is, you’ve got to be physical, Cliffy. That’s part of your game and that’s what’s going to happen tonight on both sides, when it’s there. Don’t be reckless.
“He stayed within himself very well, managed his assignment well. … He answered that bell [against their top line] well.”
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