Jake DeBrusk, Team Chemist

Courtesy of David Le/NHL.com

Jake DeBrusk proved his doubters wrong on Thursday night when he returned from his one-game benching to pot a pretty goal against the New York Rangers, ending his drought and giving his team an emotional boost. It was about time for the first-round draft pick to get himself going offensively this season; any longer and Don Sweeney may have actually gone through with the growing demands to have him traded, if only to keep himself from being on the hot seat. (Hell hath no fury like a Bruins fan scorned, am I right?)

But while DeBrusk may still be struggling to meet the lofty goal-scoring expectations laid on him since 2015, there's more to a player than the numbers you see in the box scores. Sometimes this "hidden value" may present itself in the team's performance on the ice more obviously, and sometimes it won't. Unfortunately, in these cases you won't know just how much value a player adds behind-the-scenes until you lose them. So, let's talk about how much the Bruins would lose if they moved on from Jake DeBrusk.

As someone from the outside looking in, I can tell that the Bruins are a tight-knit group. If the players' frequent mentions of the their closeness aren't enough, there's always the team's exhibition trip to China, or their attire-based tradition for outdoor games, or the fact that Torey Krug can't seem to stop stalking the Bruins' Twitter account in his spare time, that tells us a little bit about how much chemistry the group has (and has had for many years past).

DeBrusk is very important to this. In fact, I'd argue that if you put a picture next to the dictionary definition of "team chemistry guy," it would be Jake.

For starters, the dude is just plain fun. He's so Canadian that not even Canadians can understand him sometimes. He manages to put his own quirky spin on everything, whether it's cellies, Fortnite lingo, routine press conferences, or that toque he wore for several weeks straight. You'd be hard-pressed to not give at least a chuckle or snort at at least fifty percent of the things he says. And the guy just does not seem to care; he seems to enjoy being himself and staying light-hearted about it. That attitude sparks a similar spirit in the locker room, the same way that friends' idiosyncrasies tend to rub off on each other.

Look, I'm sure it sounds silly to say that being fun is a critical factor in team chemistry. I'm not even really sure what to name it: quirkiness? fun-ness? makes-you-snort-ness? It's a concept that is nearly impossible to describe, yet everyone who knows who DeBrusk is knows exactly what I'm talking about: that distinct Jake DeBrusk vibe. But regardless of what it is called, there's no reason why this can't be considered as valuable an emotional factor as, say, "grit" or "heart." There's about a hundred guys in the league who could fit the bill for the classic "heart" guy in the locker room. How many can be a Jake DeBrusk?

Which brings me to my last point: you can't name a player on the Bruins' roster who is more universally referenced in any "locker room pastime" context - in other words, all the parts between games where team bonding really occurs - than DeBrusk. David Pastrnak may be a candidate for this, but even he has stated (with zero hesitation) that it is DeBrusk, more than anyone else, who runs the locker room.

Looking at this as a whole, there is significant evidence that Jake DeBrusk is an important guy in the locker room - a chemist of sorts. No, I'm not saying that this vague and mysterious quality is more important than his ability to play hockey well. But when we consider that the Bruins' locker room has already lost staples like Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug, do we really want them to lose a third? What does that do to such a close-knit group?

If DeBrusk can keep his scoring up, there should be no need to worry about losing him. But in the meantime, let's appreciate him for what he brings to the locker room - and have a little chuckle while we're at it.