By Joe Haggerty
CSNNE.com Bruins InsiderFollow @hackswithhaggs
BOSTON -- One prediction came out loud and clear this weekend from the mouths of people who watched Benoit Pouliot up in Montreal over the last couple of years: The forward has all the talent in the world, but hell be slow to adjust to Claude Juliens defensive system and need for discipline.
Pouliot, 24, has been handed a clean slate here in Boston, and will be given a chance to work himself out of the doldrums that dogged him with the Habs. Pouliot has been slow to make a distinctive impression after appearing in a handful of preseason games, but Julien said the Bs will take their time evaluating the gifted 6-foot-3 enigma.
Both Julien and Peter Chiarelli have compared Pouliot favorably with Nathan Horton as an impoverished hockey prospect getting rescued from a bad situation, and there is no doubting Horton blossomed once he arrived in Boston.
But theres a world of difference between a high first-round pick averaging 60 points a season in a pitiful hockey market, and an underachieving player whos washed out of two good organizations while straining to score more than 15 goals in the NHL.
Its a pretty easy guess which one of those players is Horton, and which one is Pouliotbut the Bruins want to get Pouliot ingratiated into their way of doing things before a judgment is made one way or the other.
He's a guy coming into our organization with a different kind of game that he's maybe used to . . . just like Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley," Julien said. "You know we all said before the playoffs started that when we got those two guys they didn't bring that much in the regular season. They were just other bodies, but when they got into the playoffs they were pretty good players. So sometimes you need patience.
I know Pouliot can skate. I know he can shoot. The rest is going to be up to him to show us that he's adapting and that he's going to be a better player. We have to allow him that opportunity. When that opportunity is given and we feel he's had enough time, then we make those decisions.
Boston Bruins
So the Bruins are preaching patience with Pouliot after that had run out with the Canadiens and the Wild, and that isnt likely to be changing anytime soon for a guy with plenty still to prove. The Bruins are banking hell be able to tap into that talent with them.
Joe Haggerty can be reached at jhaggerty@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow Joe on Twitter at http:twitter.comHackswithHaggs