Just when it looked like the Bruins' defense was starting to get healthier, things have once again taken a turn for the worse.
The team announced Saturday morning that Brandon Carlo will be evaluated on a "week-to-week" basis after suffering an upper-body injury during the first period of Thursday night's loss to the Penguins.
It was Carlo's second game back from a concussion he suffered on March 5 when Washington's Tom Wilson hit him in the head. Obviously, the "upper body" designation is concerning, as you hope it's not related to the previous concussion.
As of Saturday morning, we don't know if it is or isn't related. (UPDATE: Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said after Saturday's game that Carlo's injury is new and not related to the concussion. He said it was "below the neck.")
It was hard to tell exactly what happened to Carlo on Thursday. He was definitely doubled over going back to the bench late in the first period, but there was no obvious play on which he would've gotten hurt. He landed a hard hit on Brandon Tanev and may have hit the boards a bit himself, but he didn't seem to be in immediate pain afterwards. There was another light bump with Tanev, but nothing you'd think would do damage.
Regardless, Carlo's absence is a big blow to a Bruins defense that has desperately needed him of late. While Matt Grzelcyk and Charlie McAvoy have given the Bruins an elite top pair, they have struggled to find much consistency behind that.
Jeremy Lauzon, who held his own next to McAvoy to start the year, has struggled since returning from a fractured hand. On Tuesday, he committed two bad turnovers that led to goals. On Thursday, he got torched one-on-one by Pittsburgh defenseman Mike Matheson on another goal against.
Jakub Zboril has also run into some rookie growing pains after a promising start, and Connor Clifton has potentially played his way out of the lineup even with injuries piling up. Jarred Tinordi and Steven Kampfer shouldn't be much more than veteran depth, but both may be pressed into more regular playing time now.
Kevan Miller, who hasn't played since Feb. 18 while dealing with lingering issues in his surgically repaired right knee, has been practicing with the team recently and seems to be getting close to a return, but he won't play Saturday. Miller is best served in a third-pairing, rather than top-four, role, and obviously his health can't be assumed even once he returns.
That Carlo's latest setback comes less than two weeks before the April 12 NHL trade deadline only complicates matters even more for general manager Don Sweeney.
While it's been clear for a while that in a perfect world Sweeney would add both a scoring wing and a top-four D, trading for impact players is hard and Sweeney may have to prioritize one over the other when it gets to crunch time.
Given the Bruins' offensive struggles this season, the hope among a lot of fans has been that Sweeney would prioritize the forward and that eventually the defense would get healthy enough to be as solid as it was earlier this season.
With Carlo now out on a week-to-week basis, Sweeney may not have the luxury of assuming health on the blue line, and he also may have to consider the possibility that one or two impact moves might not be enough for the 2021 Bruins.
