BOSTON — Joonas Korpisalo is both the new guy and the most experienced goalie on the Bruins roster.
He has the most impressive career resume of the active Boston netminders, but is coming off the worst year of his career.
And with Jeremy Swayman still unsigned, there was a spotlight — bigger than usual for the preseason — on the Finnish goalie’s Tuesday night preseason debut against the Capitals
He didn’t see a lot of shots, but the Capitals got some quality looks against him. Korpisalo stopped all seven shots he faced and made a good first impression in Boston’s 4-2 win.
“It matters. The first outing. No matter what your last season was, you want to start on a good foot and keep building on it,” Boston coach Jim Montgomery said. “He’s a pretty confident young man. He knows how good he is.”
Korpisalo played 29 minutes, 39 seconds before Michael DiPietro took over midway through the second period.
“I felt pretty good. I didn’t have much to do there, but I felt pretty comfortable,” Korpisalo said. “Guys did a good job in front of me. Let me see the puck. No second chances.”
Montgomery thought Korpisalo’s positioning influenced the Washington players into some bad shots.
“I thought Korpisalo was really good. He made four difficult saves look real easy. He’s composed,” he said. “He’s big in the net. Washington had a lot of opportunities they missed the net on. He’s out. He’s taking away the angles. The shooter is trying to be perfect and they miss the net.”
Korpisalo wasn’t reading too much into one short outing.
“We’ll take the good and the bad and move on. There’s lots of games left,” he said. “Even though it was just a half game, you want to do your best and give a good impression and be yourself. I feel pretty good.”
