Benoit Pouliot Fired Up to Face Former Club for First Time As Montreal Visits TD Garden

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Oct 27, 2011

BOSTON — Benoit Pouliot didn't bother to try to hide the extra motivation he has for Thursday's contest against the Canadiens.

"You face your old team, you obviously want to prove that, 'You didn't want to keep me, I'll show you,'" Pouliot said after the team's morning skate. "It pumps you up even more."

Pouliot came to Boston this offseason after playing 118 games for the Habs over the previous two seasons, and his departure from Montreal wasn't on the best of terms.

Pouliot clashed with Montreal head coach Jacques Martin and was a healthy scratch for the final four games of the opening-round playoff series against the Bruins. The Canadiens non-tendered him after the season, allowing him to become a free agent and ultimately change sides in hockey's fiercest rivalry.

On Thursday, Pouliot will face his old club for the first time in the regular season as Montreal pays its first visit of the year to the Garden.

Pouliot is plenty familiar with the rivalry between the Original Six clubs, but now will experience it from the Boston side for the first time.

"It's different obviously, but it's good," Pouliot said. "I think with the way things were in Montreal I had to make a change and coming to Boston has been great so far. We haven't had the start we wanted to, but other than that, the guys have made it so easy for me to jump in here and do what I'm capable of doing. It's just a matter of working hard every night and things will fall into place."

Pouliot has been particularly impressed with Claude Julien's coaching, especially compared to what he experienced in Montreal.

"It's just a matter of knowing what you do right or wrong," Pouliot said. "Not hiding it, let the guy know and he'll work on it. And Claude's been good to me so far. He's been talking to me, the assistant coaches have been talking to me all the time with video and stuff. For me, I just had to show up and work hard and be consistent every night in practice and in games, and so far things have been going pretty well. Maybe not in points, but everything else for me was to work hard, and it's been good so far."

Julien's latest bit of advice for Pouliot is to stay within himself and not try to do too much against his old club.

"I don't think you go into a big meeting," Julien said. "Sometimes it's just a couple words, 'Don't try to do too much. Go out there and try to play your game and our game and everything will be fine.' Do you relax him a little bit? You help him out a little bit but I think he also knows he's motivated for this game. It's not a big secret to see a player play against his old team for the first time and really want to do well. It's about making sure he channels his emotions in the right way."

Pouliot agrees, and doesn't expect to have any problems controlling his emotions against Montreal.

"No, not at all," Pouliot said. "It won't be. I'll just play my game. It doesn't matter which team we're playing against. Tonight it's Montreal, but it doesn't matter. I'll play the way I'm playing and hopefully I get a couple points."

Pouliot hasn't been able to get any points yet as a Bruin, but he has provided a bit of a physical presence. He has 13 hits in seven games, trailing only Milan Lucic (18) and Shawn Thornton (14) among Bruins forwards. He'd like to add to that total on Thursday, but not at the expense of costing his new club a chance to beat his old one.

"You don't want to run around and just try to hit everyone and be out of position," Pouliot said. "You want to keep playing the way the Bruins are supposed to play. I'm not going to be running around. If the hit's there then the hit's there and I'll just try to help my team as much as I can." 

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