Kalman: Benoit Pouliot Comes Up Big Against Former Team
BOSTON (CBS) - As he got ready to take the faceoff in the right dot in the Montreal zone against Canadiens center Petteri Nokelainen, Bruins forward Rich Peverley gave teammate Benoit Pouliot the signal that a play was on.
Peverley might as well have been flashing the green light for Pouliot to stick a dagger in his former team.
After the puck dropped 12:11 into the first period, Peverley won the draw forward toward the Canadiens' goal. Pouliot beat P.K. Subban to the puck in front and then beat goaltender Carey Price two seconds after the drop of the puck with a wrist shot that Pouliot admitted after the game he thought had been stopped.
The goal put the Bruins up 1-0 and sent them on their way to a 19th win in their last 22 outings – this time a 3-2 decision over Montreal at the TD Garden.
"It always feels good. Obviously winning is a lot better, it feels great," said Pouliot after the game. "And putting a goal out there, it feels good. Price almost had me there on the stick [side]. It feels good."
After he was scratched for the Bruins' first two games with Montreal this season, Pouliot's first attempt to get after his old club was a personal disaster. Although the Bruins prevailed 1-0 at the Bell Centre November 21, Pouliot's ice time was cut to just 8:07 mostly because of no shifts in the third period. Pouliot had picked up six penalty minutes in his brief time on the ice and head coach Claude Julien said after the victory that he thought Pouliot was just trying too hard.
Since that night, Pouliot has settled in at left wing next to center Chris Kelly and right winger Rich Peverley. He has scored four of his six goals, including three game-winners, in the 13 games since that meltdown in Montreal.
"I was just getting used to everything that was going on down here," he said. "Playing with Pevs and Kells makes my game a little easier. They're two-way guys and they play well with the puck and I just try to make room for them. We're sitting on the same page. We talk a lot and right now the chemistry is pretty good. Every game we get a lot of chances to score goals. It's good."
In the Bruins' latest win, Pouliot not only scored the game's first goal but was active physically and earned even more power-play minutes than he's been receiving lately because of the absence of Milan Lucic due to a suspension.
"I think he's gotten better as the season's gone on. He's adapted well to our hockey club," said Julien. "We talked about being patient at the beginning of the year when a lot of people probably were writing him off, and right now he's showing that he's very capable of playing on our club and doing a great job."
Pouliot's production might never justify that he was taken fourth overall in 2005. That's not the Bruins' problem. All they know if that he's meeting the expectations they set for him after signing him last summer.
"Our team is a team that really pushes guys to work hard day in, day out," said Julien. "We have a good group of players, and we felt that if we could get some consistency in this player, he would be a good asset to our hockey club."
