Back on Nov. 28, Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy made Erik Haula and Jake DeBrusk healthy scratches for a game against the Vancouver Canucks. Haula had registered just three points in his first 17 games as a Bruin. DeBrusk had been slightly more productive with six points, but his game seemed stuck in the same low place it had been during the 2020-21 season.
Haula looked like a free-agent bust for general manager Don Sweeney. DeBrusk went public with his trade request the next day, and it looked like his days in Boston were numbered.
Fast forward five months. As the Bruins wrap up the regular season and prepare for the start of the playoffs early next week, Haula and DeBrusk are two critical pieces of their top six and are playing some of the best hockey of their careers.
The Bruins bet on both, most notably at last month’s trade deadline. They didn’t trade DeBrusk away. They didn’t acquire a top-six right wing that would have bumped him down the lineup again, either. And they didn’t trade for a second-line center that -- in theory -- would have been an “upgrade” over Haula.
The final verdict on those bets won’t come until the playoffs, but so far, they’re paying off. Haula continues to be a great fit between Taylor Hall and David Pastrnak on the second line. The drop-off many fans and analysts feared, or even expected, has not happened. DeBrusk has picked up his play -- and consistently kept it at that higher level -- since being put with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand on the top line. He did not check out after his trade request went unfulfilled.
Haula has 39 points (17 goals, 22 assists) in 52 games since being put on the second line on Jan. 1. He has been even better since the trade deadline, registering 19 points (10g, 9a) in the last 18 games. That includes seven points in the nine games Pastrnak recently missed. DeBrusk has 15 goals and eight assists in 30 games since being put on the top line on Feb. 24, including nine goals and five assists in 18 games since the deadline.
Obviously, Haula and DeBrusk have both benefitted from playing with their dynamic linemates. Any center is going to look better playing between Hall and Pastrnak. Any winger is going to look better playing next to Bergeron and Marchand. But Haula and DeBrusk are not merely passengers on their respective lines. Both have brought, and continue to bring, complementary elements that have helped their linemates.
Haula has committed to doing the defensive work required to win pucks back quickly and get the line back on the attack. He also has the speed to keep up with his high-flying wings. All three have worked on improving the line’s forecheck and cycle game so they can generate offense in more ways than just off the rush, something they know they need to be able to do in the playoffs.
“I think it’s been a really good ascension with Erik,” Hall said Tuesday night. “He’s very comfortable in the D-zone. I think you see he’s killing plays a lot more now in the D-zone. He’s much more assertive to get pucks back. And then from there, we’re all speedy guys on the rush and we seem to get better and better as the games go on reading off each other.
“Playoffs is a different beast. There might not be that rush game, but I feel like our forecheck and our in-zone play has gotten a lot better as well since January 1, and that’s gonna be what the playoffs is. It might not be a rush game every time out there, so you have to find different ways to create offense. I felt like last year in the playoffs, when there wasn’t a rush game against the Islanders, me, [David Krejci] and [Craig Smith] struggled a little bit. We couldn’t generate chances the way that we wanted to. Whatever game is gonna be played, we have to be ready for that, and I think we are as a line.”
Those improvements can be seen in the line’s possession numbers. In their first two months together, Hall, Haula and Pastrnak had a Corsi-for percentage of 54.0% and outshot opponents 118-102 in 25 games. In the last two months, they’re at 58.5% Corsi and a shot differential of 127-75 in 18 games together. That’s what better cycling, puck possession, reloads, second efforts, etc. looks like: More chances for, fewer against.
Speaking of great all-around play and not giving up much, the Marchand-Bergeron-DeBrusk line has been about as good as it gets. Of 70 lines across the NHL that have played at least 200 minutes together this season, they rank first in Corsi-for percentage (68.1%), first in expected goals-for percentage (72.6%), first in Corsi against (38.3 per 60 minutes), and first in expected goals against (1.44 per 60).
They are not scoring quite as many actual goals as they were when Pastrnak was on that line (4.07 per 60 with Pastrnak, 3.08 with DeBrusk), but that was to be expected. Pastrnak is one of the best goal-scorers in the league. Any line is going to score less if you take him off it. With DeBrusk, the line is actually taking slightly more shots and giving up fewer, though.
Obviously Bergeron and Marchand -- two of the best two-way players in the NHL -- drive the bus in that respect. But this is not a case of them just carrying DeBrusk. DeBrusk’s buy-in at both ends of the ice and greater attention to detail has been a real asset to them as well. Cassidy, previously an openly harsh critic of DeBrusk’s play at times, had nothing but effusive praise on Wednesday when asked if he sees DeBrusk helping Marchand and Bergeron and not just vice versa.
“Yep. Outside speed, attacking the net has been excellent. Puck recovery, second effort, excellent,” Cassidy said. “All the things they do well that put teams on their heels and getting to the net when necessary -- the third goal [Tuesday] night was a good example of that. Jake got to the net, funnel play. … The little things that have made that line successful to me are second effort and getting to your spots, and he’s done a great job with those.
“He’s been just as good for that line as they’ve been for him. It’s been a real good marriage, and you can see it in Jake’s play. He’s invested in every area of the ice. That’s what we always wanted, and he’s giving it to us, and as a result, you’re seeing it: He looks like a first-line hockey player every night.”
The concerns about whether DeBrusk and Haula would hold up as viable top-six solutions come this time of year were valid. The memories of those early-season struggles that led to those healthy scratches on Nov. 28 were not easy to forget.
The biggest test -- the playoffs -- is still to come. But as the Bruins put the final touches on their spring preparation, they have to feel pretty good about how these two bets have paid off so far.
All stats via Natural Stat Trick, Evolving-Hockey, or Hockey-Reference.
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