In the 1st 9 games of the season Debrusk puts up 4 points in 9 games.
In those same 9 games Elias Pettersson puts up 4 points in 9 games.
In the next 14 games Pettersson puts up 17 points.
In that same next 14 game span Debrusk puts up 15 points.
It’s easy to just go with the ‘he’s so streaky’ line of thinking but this wasn’t/isn’t a case of a player being streaky.
His center was AWOL when he wasn’t putting up points and since his center has started to find his game so has Debrusk.
Interesting point of view.
I would certainly say it’s a bit of both. Debrusk is burying his chances in front of the net which wasn’t happening at all during the first 13 games of the season. And he’s genuinely looking good. Like that OT goal, if Debrusk doesn’t score that goal Pettersson doesn’t get the point.
Pettersson can feed his linemates 20 times a game if he could. If they can’t finish on those chances, then Pettersson ends up with zero assists. This is why linemates matter. He had 102 points playing with Kuzmenko who scored 39 goals. Kuzmenko was producing however in a very loose system under Boudreau and when he didn’t adapt to Tocchet’s system of play, he became useless and down goes Pettersson’s assists.
Mackinnon doesn’t get nearly as many assists if he doesn’t have a 45-50 goal scoring winger like Rantanen.
Likewise with Kucherov and linemates like Stamkos and Point, both whom are 50 goal scorers.
Debrusk is probably the 2nd best linemate Pettersson has ever had from a line of his own. The thing is, Pettersson actually has to be able to make the plays, which he wasn’t for that 50 game stretch.