The Bruins may have dodged a bullet Thursday night. While it’s possible defenseman Brandon Carlo could miss Saturday’s Game 4 against the Islanders, he hasn’t been ruled out yet, and it doesn’t sound like he’s expected to miss any long period of time.
The initial concern was that Carlo had suffered a much more serious injury during the third period of Game 3 when he took a hard, clean hit from Islanders forward Cal Clutterbuck that sent his head into the glass. Carlo stumbled and then dropped to the ice, and he did not return to the game.
Given that Carlo has suffered multiple concussions in his career, including one in March that forced him to miss nearly a month, the high level of concern was warranted.
The first bit of encouraging news came after the game, when coach Bruce Cassidy said that Carlo was able to hang around the arena and talk to teammates and coaches after the Bruins’ overtime win, and that Carlo said he was “feeling pretty good.”
Cassidy provided a further update on Friday.
“We’ll list him as day-to-day,” Cassidy said. “He feels good this morning, better. Obviously got hit hard last night. I’ll give you an update tomorrow morning whether he’s in or out, but he’ll be day-to-day and we’ll go from there.”
If Carlo is unable to play in Game 4, the next man up would be either Jarred Tinordi, Jakub Zboril or Urho Vaakanainen. Tinordi played in Game 5 of the first round and actually played 19:02 in that game, and would seem to be the most likely choice to go in. Zboril played the most games (42) of that group in the regular season, but is just returning from an injury suffered in the final game of the regular season.
Cassidy said that Kevan Miller, who was injured in Game 4 of the first round, skated on Friday, which he called “good news.” Miller still won’t be ready to return in time for Saturday’s game, though.
Tinordi, Zboril and Vaakanainen are all left-handed shots, meaning one lefty is going to have to flip to his off side if Carlo is out. Jeremy Lauzon played on the right side last year and could do so again, with whoever enters the lineup joining him on the third pairing.
That would bump Connor Clifton up to the second pairing next to Mike Reilly. While that might initially seem like a shaky idea, it’s worth noting that Reilly and Clifton were very good together in the regular season. In 99 minutes with those two together on the ice at five-on-five, the Bruins had 64.2% of shot attempts, 65.7% of shots on goal, and outscored opponents 9-2.
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