Bruins Notebook: Brandon Carlo ‘day-to-day,’ said Bruce Cassidy

There was plenty to like in the Bruins 2-1 overtime win over the Islanders in Game 3 on Thursday.

The B’s unflinchingly faced a hostile, full house for the first time since the pandemic began, outplayed their hosts for the most part (the notable exception being about 3:35 of the 3:36-long overtime) and regained their home-ice advantage.

But make no mistake. The B’s are still very much in the deep woods of this best-of-seven series and their compass may not be so easy to find.

That air of uncertainty was brought on by Islander Cal Clutterbuck‘s hard but legal check on Brandon Carlo that resulted in the defenseman’s head banging off the glass early in the third period of Game 3. After a fogged-up Carlo, who was concussed earlier this year by an illegal Tom Wilson hit, struggled to regain his footing, he left the game and did not return.

The main underlying concern is the well-liked Carlo’s health in general. That’s a point from where coach Bruce Cassidy seemed to be coming when he gave a generally positive report on Carlo after the game. Those good vibes continued on Friday morning.

“He feels good this morning, better. Obviously, he got hit pretty hard (Thursday) night,” said Cassidy.

But whether Carlo is well enough to go right back into a highly physical series for Saturday’s Game 4 is another question entirely. Officially, Cassidy listed Carlo as day-to-day and deferred a determination on his Game 4 availability until Saturday morning. But judging from the hit he took, along with his history of head injuries — he also suffered a concussion at the end of his rookie season that kept him out of the playoffs — it would hardly be a shock if he had to sit for at last another game.

If so, then what next? The three available candidates to replace the righthanded Carlo are veteran journeyman Jarred Tinordi and rookies Jakub Zboril and Urho Vaakanainen, all lefties. Cassidy was not ready to name the next man up until he knows if Carlo can play or not. The guess here is that Tinordi’s size and experience makes him the favorite. He stepped into the clinching Game 5 against Washington and did the job admirably.

But what would a potential Carlo absence do to the defense corps as a whole? Would someone on the bottom pair simply move over to the right or would it cause a more substantial re-jiggering?

“That’s a decision we’ll have to make,” said Cassidy. “(Jeremy Lauzon) may have to go his off-side. I know (Matt Grzelcyk) has played it, but that’s a road we don’t want to go down. One of those guys will have to find a comfort level if that’s what we have to do and take Brandon out. Or we may have to be creative in-game, obviously, with playing four left sticks and two righties and giving the righties a lot of ice-time. I’m not saying they’d play half the game but a little more than usual and try to minimize a guy going to his off-side. So there are some different things you can do obviously and we’ll sort those things.”

The B’s, of course, have a young right-handed D-man who seems to relish all the ice time he gets. Charlie McAvoy was a horse all night in Game 3, but even more so when Carlo went down. He played 10:56 in the third period and 2:14 in OT, where he set up Brad Marchand‘s mail slot goal. He logged 29:11 in all with three shots on net, six hits, five blocks and a hand in the winner. It was the kind of game that would make a good item on a Norris Trophy candidate’s resume

“Obviously he’s becoming an elite player in this league and the playoffs don’t bother him. Some guys get nervous or shy away from the moment. He’s not one of those guys. It’s probably what makes him a great player at this time of year,” said Cassidy. “And obviously when a guy goes down, I think the message resonated with everyone. I think it was (Patrice Bergeron) who said it. It was, ‘Hey, we play for one another, we pick each other up.’ And Brandon’s a very popular teammate and that (message) was directed basically at everybody. And in Charlie’s case, he’s directly impacted because it’s going to mean more minutes from him and probably (Connor) Clifton as well. And then it’s for the forwards to make sure you’re supporting the D more and not putting them in spots where they have to extend shifts. I thought we did a good job in picking the D up because we’re a little bit limited. But (McAvoy) is going to play and try to drive the game no matter what, whether a guy’s hurt or not, no matter how many minutes he plays. It’s just who he is. He impacted the game in many ways (Thursday) night, offensively on the last goal, carrying the mail through the neutral, physically with the hit on (Jean-Gabriel) Pageau after they’d hit (David Pastrnak) hard, so he responded well there big blocked shots on the PK. There’s a number of different ways, and good for Charlie. Teams that advance have that kind of D that can log those minutes and play in every situation and we certainly have one in him.”

And the B’s may need every tool in McAvoy’s arsenal — including those extra large lungs of his — if the B’s want to take a 3-1 stranglehold on this series Saturday night.

Kevan Miller progressing

Kevan Miller is also not available for Saturday — he did not make the trip — but he continued to skate on Friday back in Boston.

“So that’s good news on that,” said Cassidy.

Whether that means Miller could be ready for Monday’s Game 5 remains to be seen. His right stick would certainly be welcome, especially with Carlo’s uncertain status.

Miller has not played since he was knocked out of the lineup on a high hit from Dmitry Orlov on May 21.

Cassidy praises officials … to a point

Cassidy acknowledged that the on-ice officials have done a good job in handling the physicality of this series. But he was not wild about the two stick infractions called on Marchand (a high stick that’s pretty much automatic) and Pastrnak (a slash that was ticky-tack in the overall scheme of things).

“I guess I took a little bit of an issue with them singling out Pasta and Marchie, two of our elite players on retaliatory stick fouls when it’s not too hard to watch Pageau cross-check and slash Marchie when he’s coming to the bench on the exact same penalty that Pasta got called for and Marchie got called for, so you’d like to see consistency in that area of the game. I’m going to have a hard time believing they missed that. Everyone saw. That’s the only problem I’ll have. If you’re going to take one team, take the other,” said Cassidy.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3fRCWBA