Carlo doesn’t miss beat in his comeback

SUNRISE, Fla. — Brandon Carlo has dealt with injuries before, and some pretty major ones. But both of those previous situations — a concussion in his rookie season and a broken ankle last year — have come late in the 82-game slate and ended his season. When it was time to get back at it, it was in training camp when everyone else was shaking off the rust, too.

This is a little different for the defenseman. Carlo left the lineup in November with a collarbone/shoulder injury for three weeks — just long enough to fall out of any groove into which might have gotten himself — before working his way back into the lineup first the first time Saturday night against the Red Wings.

Carlo didn’t look much different from the solid D-man he was before he was knocked out of the lineup. It was nothing spectacular, mind you, just some reliable defense work in 17:39 (2:27 on the penalty kill) with three shots on goal and an even rating.

Carlo admitted to being a little nervous about jumping back on the spinning merrygo-round.

“Definitely. I think everyone has those kind of thoughts in their heads at times,” Carlo said after Tuesday’s morning skate at BB&T Center. “But overall, I feel like the coaches are good with handling that situation. They’re going to play me in the proper way to make sure that I manage the time I’m given on the ice. I feel like they had a lot of trust in me last game still and I was able to feed off the way I was playing before. … It was a bit of a different circumstance for me but I feel like I came back in and did my part with how I played last game.”

Like everyone else, Carlo didn’t exactly have a clean game in last night’s 5-0 loss to the Panthers, though he was better than some. He was minus-1 with a teamhigh 22:46 of ice time.

McAvoy makes trip

Charlie McAvoy traveled with the team and has been cleared for contact in practice, but there is no target date for a game return. Cassidy isn’t expecting him to play on this trip, though he has not officially been ruled out. The clearance, whenever it’s given, will come from the medical staff.

“I think it’s a matter of Charlie meeting with a specific doctor and then, ‘Where are you at with this, that and the other thing?’ Then the doctor will say, ‘OK, you’re ready to go.’ That’s how I think his final say-so will be,” Cassidy said. “But it’s been left in the medical people’s hands. I just the information about when he’s practicing with us and when he’s feeling better just by talking to him.”

Clifton’s bad hit

Connor Clifton may hear from the league on a hit that knocked Nick Bjugstad out of the game in the third period, though coach Bruce Cassidy didn’t think it was bad.

“I watched it on the bench. I didn’t see it again. It looked he saw him coming and it looked like he turned into him,” Cassidy said. “He didn’t seem to hit him high, maybe he left his feet driving through. There was no penalty on the play. The refs came over and told me the thought it was clean. That’s out of my hands.”

Familiar Frank

Former Bruin Frank Vatrano is doing OK for himself in Florida. He’s got eight goals, fourth on the Panthers, and had 2-1-3 totals and was plus-3 in three games against his old team entering last night.

“You kind of have a little jump in your step when you play your old team,” Vatrano said. “There are guys over there I played three or four years with, and guys I’ve known my whole life, too. It’s nice to see some familiar faces out there, but once the puck drops, it’s just another hockey game.”