Boston Bruins
Brandon Carlo Knocked Out Of Rangers Game After Blocked Shot
The Boston Bruins made it through their New York trip with a perfect four points after wins against the Islanders and Rangers, but they may not have escaped unscathed from injury that could impact their lineup.
B’s defenseman Brandon Carlo was forced out of Thursday night’s 3-1 Bruins win over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden after blocking a shot with his right leg that had him hobbling around immediately afterward. He finished the shift, but then exited the game needing help to get to the B’s dressing room.
Brandon Carlo to the locker room after blocking this one-timer pic.twitter.com/ZJz0R87IM3
— Bear With Me (@BearWithMe_Pod) January 20, 2023
The Bruins stay-at-home defenseman never returned to the game and finished with 8:15 of ice time on nine shifts with just the blocked shot on his stat line. The B’s confirmed it was a lower body issue for their defensemen during the third period of Thursday’s game.
UPDATE: Brandon Carlo (lower-body) is unlikely to return to tonight's game.
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) January 20, 2023
The injury pushed both Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy to log over 24 minutes of ice time in the second night of back-to-back games and had Connor Clifton log almost 21 minutes of ice time while scoring Boston’s third goal while finishing off a nice 2-on-1 rush with Brad Marchand.
A possible Carlo injury underscores the Boston Bruins need for a bit more defensemen depth on the right side, which is a big reason the Black and Gold have shown interest in veteran Vancouver Canucks defenseman Luke Schenn ahead of the NHL trade deadline. A player like Schenn would do much to shore up Boston’s depth on the defense’s right side in case anything happens health-wise to Carlo or Charlie McAvoy, and would shore up an organizational depth chart that includes players like Jakub Zboril, Anton Stralman and Mike Reilly right now.
Carlo had been relatively healthy this season playing in 40 out of 44 games while posting a goal and eight points along with a plus-23 rating in 18:49 of ice time, and it remains to be seen what will develop out of something serious enough that it kept Carlo from returning to Thursday’s game.