Carlo, ‘D’ bounce back
Defenseman restores faith in his play
CALGARY, Alberta — After suffering an embarrassing 6-1 loss to Vancouver on Saturday, there weren’t many Bruins who could hold their heads high.
Brandon Carlo, in particular, had a rough night, being on the ice for four of the six Canucks goals. With defenseman Kevan Miller getting ready to return perhaps as early as tonight in Edmonton, Carlo’s spot on the blue line seemed a bit tenuous.
But like the rest of the team, Carlo responded with a strong effort in the B’s 2-1 overtime win over the Flames yesterday. He was a plus-1 in 21:07 of ice time and made several strong plays. He was charged with three giveaways but none led to goal against.
“I wanted to reboot the confidence a little for myself and show that I care a lot,” said Carlo. “I wanted to go out there and have another kick at the can. I appreciated the opportunity today and I felt like I handled it well. Overall, you can’t get too down or too high. I’m just trying to stay consistent.”
Coach Bruce Cassidy said before the game that Miller would most likely return tonight after missing eight games with an upper-body injury. He was having his best year as a pro and he needs to get back in the lineup at some point. The only question has been who would come out. It looked like Carlo jumped ahead Adam McQuaid yesterday by a hair.
But there was really no Bruin who had a bad game in Calgary.
“Definitely better,” said Carlo. “We were a little more physical in front of our net and those are the things that we needed to do. We talked about (Sunday) and worked on it in practice. I felt like we accomplished our goal of being stronger defensively.”
Tough times
The line of Jake DeBrusk, David Krejci and Ryan Spooner generated about a dozen scoring chances in the last two games but have been snake-bitten.
Krejic hasn’t scored a goal in six games and it’s been 10 since DeBrusk found the back of the net. Spooner, who was stopped on a breakaway, hasn’t scored a goal in four games.
“It’s a long season. You have some streaks where pucks go in for you,” said Spooner, who had five shots on net. “I think the most important thing is that you get the chances and we’ve been doing that, right? It’s funny how that works. You play a game, get one shot and you score. You play the next game, you get five and you don’t. That’s just how the game works. I’m just happy that we won.”
On the board again
Though he broke his goal-less streak at six games, NHL All-Star Brad Marchand still wasn’t thrilled with his game.
“I wasn’t happy with some of the decisions I made with the puck,” said Marchand. “I turned it over a few places where I should have and tried to force some plays where maybe I should have held on to it. That’s where you know you’re feeling it and when you’re not, when you hold the puck that extra second to make a good play instead of throwing it into a whole area or making a hope pass.
“Again, that’ll come, and I just have to keep working on it.”
Pasta one-ups pal
David Pastrnak said he knows Flames goalie and fellow Czech David Rittich very well.
“He went to high school with my older brother, so I’m really happy to get this one. I’m pretty sure my brother’s going to give it to him, big-time,” said Pastrnak with a wide grin after scoring his 22nd goal of the season on Rittich . . . .
After a fairly productive season last year in Edmonton (23-27-50), old friend Milan Lucic has nine goals this year in 58 games. In his last 11, he’s got no points and is minus-10 . . . .
Anton Khudobin will get the start in goal tonight in Edmonton.