Carlo puts emphasis on health
When it comes to those nagging injuries that can weigh a player down through the season, Brandon Carlo has been lucky. Carlo played in 82 regular season games in his rookie season and 76 last season.
But when he has gotten hurt, the young Bruins defenseman has shown some terrible timing.
In his rookie season, he suffered a concussion in the last game of the regular season when he was hit from behind by Alex Ovechkin. He missed the playoffs. And with about a week to go before the end of the regular season last year, he suffered an ugly broken ankle when he tried to kick a puck away from danger and wound up toe-picking, crashing down in a heap. He required surgery. Once again, Carlo missed the playoffs.
“Yeah, I’ve got to work on my soccer skills,” Carlo said with a grin. “Pretty embarrassing.”
At the Bruins captains’ practice yesterday, the 21-year-old Carlo was zipping around and declared himself a full-go for the start of training camp on Sept. 10.
“No restrictions,” he said. “I’m expecting to be full-everything, fullcontact and all of that. I’m feeling confident about that and real excited.”
Carlo began skating on his own in late June and, after overcoming some initial pain in the ankle, his recovery had been on a straight line.
“It didn’t feel great right away,” he said. “I think it was just breaking down some of that scar tissue and getting pressure on that area that I was uncomfortable with. But now it feels great.”
Before the injury, Carlo experienced an up-and-down sophomore campaign. He left the security blanket of Zdeno Chara and played mostly with Torey Krug. Carlo had some rough nights, low-lighted by a minus-4 game in Vancouver. He went from 6-10-16 totals his first year to just six assists — no goals — last season. He endured the first healthy scratch of his career, too.
But in another cruel twist, Carlo had shown marked improvement and had been playing his best hockey at the time of the injury. He felt the improvement was both physical and mental, consciously playing a “grittier” style of game.
“I think it was just forgetting about the past, forgetting about mistakes,” the Colorado Springs native said. “I feel like everyone in this room is going to make a mistake now and then. But overall, I just started to believe in myself a little more. I think confidence is the biggest thing that I’m coming into camp with this year. I’m going to take it and I’m going to run with it. I worked really hard to get to this point and I’m damn excited about this year.”
When everyone was healthy last year, there were four defensemen on the B’s right side with Carlo, Charlie McAvoy, Kevan Miller and Adam McQuaid. Now, it’s balanced out with four on the left as John Moore was added to the group of Chara, Krug and Matt Grzelcyk.
There was, and will be, competition for playing time.
“I think that will have a little mental drain on every player,” said Carlo. “That’s normal to go through. But with the competitive juices that are in all of us, that’s going to push you the next step further. Overall, I think that’s good for the team and the defensive corps. I know that I’m a part of that group. I want to come and just have a fire and go for it.”
This season, Carlo would like to finally taste some playoff hockey.
“From my experience in the NHL so far the last two years I’ve been sitting up in the press box watching with you guys,” he said. “It’s really hard for me. But I just want to put that past behind me and focus on this year and I’m really damn excited about what’s going forward.”