Sometimes a dose of tough love does the trick.
Jake DeBrusk learned that after Bruce Cassidy benched him during the first period of the Bruins-Sabres contest on Sunday in Boston’s final home game of the decade at TD Garden.
The 2015 first-round selection returned to his normal spot on the second line — and on the secondary power-play unit — at the start of the middle stanza. DeBrusk, who made his way to the bench for a good 12 minutes plus in the third, slowly put forth some quality shifts as time progressed.
Finally, DeBrusk broke through early in the third with a pair of power-play tallies just 18 seconds apart to give his team a 3-1 lead.