Turning point
B’s dropped 3 straight to Isles after Carlo left series with injury
The value of some players can jump out at you. It takes little time at all to see the skill level that a Brad Marchand or David Pastrnak brings is eyepopping. For others, it is their absence from the lineup that really drives home their worth.
Put Brandon Carlo in that category.
The Great Bruin Goalie Debate will understandably dominate at least the early part of the offseason, but the series against the Islanders took the most dramatic turn when Carlo went down.
At the time Carlo’s head was bounced off the glass on a clean Cal Clutterbuck check in the third period of Game 3, the Bruins appeared to be very much the equal of the New York Islanders through the first three games of the series, even without Kevan Miller in the lineup. The B’s were clearly the better team in Game 1, they lost Game 2 on an overtime mistake and, after Carlo left in Game 3, they managed to eke out an overtime win on Marchand’s seeing-eye shot.
Without Carlo in the lineup the rest of the way, the B’s did not win another game. There were times when they applied plenty of offensive pressure, such as in the first period of Game 5. But when it came time to defend in their own zone, especially on the penalty kill, the B’s simply could not do it from shift to shift. A healthy Carlo would have helped, perhaps even been a difference-maker in this series.
Carlo’s contract is now up. He will be an RFA with arbitration rights this summer. His lack of big offensive numbers means he shouldn’t exactly break the bank for the B’s, but since the 2018-19 season through 2020-21, he’s averaged 20:23 of ice time for a team that has had the NHL’s secondbest goals against average in that time period. Carlo should get a decent raise from his $2.85 million salary. The guess here is that it takes him over the $4 million mark.
And with the futures of fellow righties Miller and Connor Clifton up in the air — Miller because of his health, Clifton due to the upcoming expansion draft — locking up Carlo is of even greater importance.
Carlo did not address his contract status in his exit interview with reporters on Friday, but he did talk about his ongoing health issues. This is the second time he was concussed this season, the first being on a decidedly unclean hit by Washington’s Tom Wilson, and at least his third overall. His rookie season ended on an Alex Ovechkin hit in the last game of the regular season.
The 6-foot-5 defenseman is not overly concerned with the number of head injuries he’s had.
“No, not at this point, not at all,” said Carlo. “I think this year was obviously a struggle through these injuries (he also suffered an oblique injury that kept him out a few weeks). It’s no fun, but I’m not going to sit here and get discouraged or think that my career is heading down a wrong path because of a couple concussions. I hope this is the last one of my career and hopefully I can play as long as possible, but for how I’ve recovered from these, I don’t feel like there’s any issue there.”
As optimistic as Carlo is about his long-term health, it sounded like he would not have been ready to play a potential Game 7. He tried skating on Monday morning before Game 5, but the results weren’t great.
“Definitely questionable if I was able to make it through the protocol steps,” said Carlo. “That’s what we were working towards, but I’m not sure with how I was feeling on the ice that day that I skated, just from dizziness and whatnot from the hit, how that would have gone. Overall, I’m feeling very good off the ice. I went and saw one of the specialists here and kind of did some stuff. I feel like the dizziness is starting to subside. Feeling good and encouraged that with this time off I’ll be more than 100% going into camp and everything. It’s obviously disappointing, but not sure if I would’ve been able to make it in there just with the protocol steps.”
All three known concussions came in situations where he was retrieving pucks along the end boards. Carlo might tweak his approach in that situation.
“Maybe I initiate body contact while I’m going back on that puck,” said Carlo. “I’ve got to say, (the Islanders) did a hell of a job putting those pucks in the right position. There’s times where it goes to the goalie but it just seemed like it was slowing up in that gray area where you don’t want (Tuukka Rask) coming out to play it. It’s kind of a long way to go back for the defenseman and you’re trying to scan the ice as you’re doing it. It’s not an easy task, but the only thing I can say, from even watching other playoff games, just trying to maybe initiate contact there first. But I’m not going to change the play. I go back and I get hit like that. It just ended up to be an unfortunate hit. Overall, I think I have a job to do with moving the puck. I’m very comfortable with making a play and taking a hit. I think, just in that situation, my head just hit the boards and it was unfortunate, but I’m fine with that.”