<p><p>BOSTON – The Tyler Johnson experiment is over before it ever really got off the ground.</p></p><p><p>The Bruins announced on Thursday that the club had placed the veteran, two-time Stanley Cup winner on unconditional waivers for the purpose of terminating his contract.</p></p><p><p>Johnson came to Bruins’ training camp on a tryout agreement and did enough to earn a one year-deal at a league minimum of $775,000, although because of the Bruins’ salary cap situation he couldn’t actually sign the deal until Nov. 4.</p></p><p><p>But playing time for Johnson was hard to find under former coach Jim Montgomery and current interim coach Joe Sacco. The 34-year-old Johnson played in just nine games and, even in the games he played, he was rarely on either of the power-play units. That was curious, considering that with Chicago last year he had 17-14-31 totals and 8-8-16 of that came on the power play. The Bruins have also been at or near the bottom of the league on the power play all season.</p></p><p><p>Johnson struggled to stay out of the box. He took five minors in the nine games he played. In his last game in a Bruins uniform against the Seattle Kraken earlier on the current road trip, he took an offensive zone tripping penalty that led to a Kraken goal shortly after the infraction was up. He was also minus-4 in that game in which the Bruins lost 5-1. Johnson had two assists and no goals in his Bruins’ stay.</p></p><p><p>The move seemed to be a fait accompli when the Bruins claimed right wing Oliver Wahlstrom off waivers from the New York Islanders last Saturday.</p></p>
↧