Bruins blank Jets in Saskatoon
SASKATOON — The Boston Bruins made it to the Stanley Cup final last season and are expected to be an Eastern Conference power again.
Heading into their last pre-season game Friday, the Bruins were looking to round into that form before their 2013-14 NHL season begins Thursday.
They weren’t quite firing on all cylinders, but they did skate to a convincing 5-0 victory over the Winnipeg Jets in front of a mostly partisan Bruins crowd of 12,497 at Credit Union Centre.
“You want to go in feeling good as a team with good habits,” Boston winger Jarome Iginla said. “I think we did that. Now we just want to get it started.”
It was the final exhibition contest for both teams, who also faced each other in Winnipeg on Thursday — a 3-2 Bruins overtime win.
The Bruins sat out a few more veterans, but it didn’t matter on the scoreboard.
“They’re a successful team for a reason,” Jets defenceman Mark Stuart said. “They come at you hard.
“They’ve got a lot of talent over there, good goaltending. We’re completely capable of bringing that hard game back at them and we really didn’t match their work ethic.”
The Bruins’ third goal was gift-wrapped by Jets goalie Al Montoya, who gave the puck away to Nick Johnson. He then set up linemate Jordan Caron for a tap-in.
However, the quality of play was mostly superb.
Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask looked to be in mid-season form, making 20 saves.
Johnson and Caron were two players Boston head coach Claude Julien noted after the morning skate who were on the bubble for cracking the final roster. They both stood out as Johnson added a goal in the third.
“That’s what you would expect, right?” Julien said.
“I thought they played well, even as a line. When there’s a battle going on like that, you’d like to see those guys respond the way they did tonight.”
“It’s hard to remove yourself from that completely,” Johnson said. “But you learn over the years that you’ve got to kind of put that aside. I just try to do that and let whatever happens happen.”
Carl Soderberg, Johnny Boychuk and Patrice Bergeron also scored for Boston, which outshot the Jets 30-20.