Julien predicts Pouliot, Corvo will fit well with Bruins’ lineup

Julien/By S. Bradley

WILMINGTON, Mass — Bruins head coach Claude Julien took in a couple sessions of the team’s development camp over the last couple days at Ristuccia Arena.

In between sessions today, he took a break to chat with the assembled media and he opined on the Bruins’ two offseason additions for the first time publicly.

On former Montreal forward Benoit Pouliot, Julien said he doesn’t know the former first-round pick personally. But Julien’s hoping to give Pouliot a better opportunity to succeed than he got from the Canadiens.

“I think his skill level is extremely high. I know that a lot of people seem to think that he underachieved. At the same time, we feel that we probably will be able to give him a better opportunity here with the space that’s open for him. From what I saw, when he played for Montreal, there were times where he was really physical. We saw him get in a fight with [David] Krejci but also get involved in the corners and then being physically engaged I guess. I think in this surrounding here, knowing he’s got good support and our team has everybody’s back, I think that it’s even going to be even a better situation for him. But at the same time, we expect him to come in and demonstrate his skills and use his skills that everybody seems to think he has so I’m really optimistic about him.

“We’ve seen Nathan Horton come in here and everybody knew about his skill level but they kind of questioned whether he can get consistent and he showed that he can. So we feel the same way about [Benoit] Pouliot. That he’s going to come in and be that same kind of consistent player and kind of grow from there. He’s a young player, I think twenty-four, so a lot of potential there.”

On the back end, the Bruins have added Joe Corvo from Carolina.

“I think you look at Corvo, who’s got a really good shot. He’s a player that may be a little bit more physical and more engaged. And we’re going to have to work with him as far as kind of making him understand the way we play here. And I think the way we play will certainly help him a little bit. Because you know again, we don’t want him running around, we want him playing well positionally. But again he skates well and he’ll move the puck well. … You know but when you look at Corvo, his shot is going to be a lot better … it will certainly help us.”