Jake DeBrusk wasn’t able to bask in the glory of one of his finest moments as a Boston Bruin for long.

While an official prognosis from the Bruins is expected on Thursday morning, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported that DeBrusk suffered a fractured fibula on Monday during the Winter Classic, in which he scored two third-period goals for a 2-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

DeBrusk did not accompany the team for its three-game West Coast trip that starts Thursday in Los Angeles. If it is a standard break, the prognosis is usually 4-to-6 weeks.

Just prior to his tying goal, DeBrusk was hit in the left leg by a Matt Grzelcyk shot.

After Monday’s game, Coach Jim Montgomery talked about DeBrusk’s underappreciated toughness, but had no idea that the player may have scored two goals with a broken bone in his leg.

“I did not know that he was actually hurt at all,” Montgomery told reporters in El Segundo, California. “I saw him wince (after he was hit by Grzelcyk’s) the shot, but then he scored right after that, so no, I used him in the last minute of play, trying to get him his hat trick with the empty net, so I did not have any issues or think that there was anything wrong with him.”

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Meeting with reporters after the game, DeBrusk acknowledged the shot he took but didn’t let on that he was injured, if he even realized it at the time with the adrenaline that was surely coursing through his system.

“That’s the nature of the business in front of the net,” said DeBrusk. “Sometimes you get yourself in positions where you don’t know a puck’s coming. It’s a game of inches. It was one of those things where I was trying to wear it off..”

Not only did he score the tying and winning goals, he also made a last-second attempt with his left leg to block an Evgeni Malkin shot that went into the net just after the horn sounded.

After a tumultuous couple of years in which he made a trade request two summers ago, DeBrusk has been putting together what was shaping up as the best season of his career. The two goals he scored in the Winter Classic were his 15th and 16th of the season, putting him on a pace to break the 30-goal plateau for the first time in his career.

But beyond the numbers, DeBrusk has proven to be as much a line driver as any of the more established stars with whom he’s played, whether it’s with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand or with David Krejci. A left-handed shot, he has become proficient at playing right wing and, as Montgomery put it after the Classic, he has been relentless in his puck pursuit.

RANGERS: Veteran forward Jimmy Vesey has turned a training camp tryout into a contract that runs through the 2024-25 season.

Rangers General Manager Chris Drury announced the team has agreed to terms with Vesey on a two-year contract extension.

Vesey, 29, has six goals, six assists and a plus-4 rating in 38 games this season.


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