Jake DeBrusk scratched from Bruins lineup for being late to team meeting

Bruins

Jake DeBrusk has yet to record a point through Boston’s first three games.

Boston Bruins' Jake DeBrusk plays during a preseason NHL hockey game, Monday, Oct. 2, 2023, in Philadelphia.
Jake DeBrusk will not play during Saturday’s game against the Kings. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

The Bruins are going to be without one of their top-six stalwarts going into their toughest test of the early part of the season against the Kings.

But it’s not because of injury.

Jake DeBrusk took part in Saturday’s morning skate at Crypto.com Arena, but did not log reps with any of Boston’s four forward groupings. After the skate, Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said that DeBrusk was late to a team meeting and will not play Saturday night against Los Angeles.

With DeBrusk ruled out, Milan Lucic will slot into his vacancy on the top-six unit, while Patrick Brown will play his first game of the season on the checking line.

In a non-related roster move, Ian Mitchell will replace Kevin Shattenkirk on the third D pairing.

Here’s Boston’s projected lineup for Saturday:

Lucic — Zacha — Pastrnak
Marchand — Poitras — Geekie
Van Riemsdyk — Coyle — Frederic
Lauko — Beecher — Brown

Grzelcyk — McAvoy
Lindholm — Carlo
Forbort — Mitchell

Swayman

It’s been far from an ideal start to the season for DeBrusk, who will hit unrestricted free agency next summer.

Despite averaging 17:39 of ice time in Boston’s first three games, the 27-year-old winger has yet to record a point while logging nine shots on goal.

Even with his zeroes on the stat sheet, DeBrusk stands as one of the few proven scorers on a Bruins roster that has only buried five 5v5 goals through three games.

Montgomery’s lineup reshuffle ahead of Thursday’s game against the Sharks yielded stronger results for a high-powered line of DeBrusk, Zacha, and Pastrnak. The Bruins held a 10-2 edge in shots on goal during that trio’s 10:04 of 5v5 ice time against San Jose.

Lucic may not be the same top-six fixture he was during his first stint in Boston. But the veteran winger did record his first point of the 2023 campaign off a nice set-up of David Pastrnak’s tally against the Blackhawks on Oct. 11.

Originally posted 2023-10-21 19:16:01.