Brandon Carlo will be back in the Bruins lineup Tuesday night for the first time since suffering a concussion on March 5 when Washington’s Tom Wilson hit him in the head.
Carlo met with the media via Zoom after Tuesday’s morning skate and said he’s “super excited” to be back.
“I got cleared yesterday. They kind of asked me if I felt like I’d need a little time with the rest and everything, but no, I’m super excited to get back and play in the lineup,” Carlo said. “Any chance that I was gonna have when they’d allow me to pop back in there, I was gonna take. I’ve had enough of the viewing party from Level 9, and I’m excited to get back out there and try to help and be an energetic voice on the bench.”
Carlo also opened up about the hit and his concussion for the first time. He took the high road a bit as it related to Wilson -- who was suspended seven games for the hit -- saying that while he didn’t think it was really necessary, he also doesn’t hold any ill will towards Wilson.
“I think that particular player, he plays the game hard,” Carlo said. “I respect the way he plays the game hard. Do I think it was necessary for him to follow through in the area that he did? Not really. But overall, things happen fast. The game happens fast. I’ve been in that position as well, trying to hit somebody.
“I’m not going to say that he meant to go right through my head. I think he’s just trying to finish the play, finish me in the D zone. Unfortunately I didn’t see him. I was involved with another player, trying to grasp where the puck was. That’s kind of all I remember from it besides seeing it on video. It happened pretty fast. I don’t have any ill will towards the player or the situation. I’m just ready to move forward and get back in the lineup.”
Carlo said he wouldn’t have had a problem with Wilson hitting him there if it was more of a full body check instead of being to the head.
“In that situation, I don’t mind if he hits me. Just get more of my body,” Carlo said. “I think the rules are pretty simple with head contact, and I feel like the NHL does a pretty good job of viewing those plays where there’s a lot of head contact. That’s all I really care about, because going forward, you see it more and more with head issues. That’s not something to be taken lightly. It can be very scary. You don’t know how it’s going to affect you in the future, with your livelihood and everything else outside of hockey. So in that situation, if he goes right through my chest, I’m completely fine with it, even if the hit hurts really bad.”
It is at least the second documented concussion of Carlo’s NHL career. He suffered one in April 2017 that forced him to miss the Bruins’ playoff series against the Senators. He may have suffered another last March just before the COVID pause when he got elbowed in the faced by Evgenii Dadonov.
Carlo said his symptoms were pretty severe early on this time -- including blurry vision that forced him to spend a night in the hospital -- and that it took a little while for his memory to get fully back to normal, but that he’s feeling “a lot better” now.
“First few days were kind of tough,” he said. “A lot of emotion involved with it. Different from the other concussion that I had. I felt like my mood was really off. The first night there, my vision was a little blurry. Couldn’t really see much out of my right eye, so that’s kind of why I went to the hospital. After that cleared up, I knew it was going to be a process of taking time and taking those first couple days easy. I definitely still had a lot of lingering concussion issues, but I’d say over this last week, it’s been fantastic. I’ve felt so much better. Things with my cognitive memory and everything have started to come back, so I’m feeling great in that regard.
“…This time, it was moreso about just taking the time to really make sure I was getting that memory piece back, because I was struggling with that for a little while, feeling foggy, and my focus was off. But I feel a lot better throughout the last four or five days in that regard. Feeling pretty much 100 percent.”
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The Bruins will also get Brad Marchand back Tuesday night. Marchand missed the last two games with what he says was a false positive COVID-19 test. He has now tested negative enough consecutive times to return.
Here are the expected lines for Tuesday night, with Jaroslav Halak in net.