Losing Brandon Carlo for postseason underscores next man up mentality for Bruins
The Boston Bruins will be without defenseman Brandon Carlo for the entire postseason as he has surgery to repair a fractured left ankle.
The Boston Bruins are pushing to control the Atlantic Division, earn the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and earn home ice advantage throughout the first three rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs tonight with a win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Unfortunately, regardless of how many games they play this postseason, they’ll have to face all of them without one of their best defensemen in Brandon Carlo.
As TSN’s Frank Seravelli confirmed on Tuesday night, Carlo will undergo surgery for the left ankle fracture he suffered on Saturday in the Bruins’ win over the Florida Panthers.
#Bruins announce D Brandon Carlo will have surgery to repair fracture in his left ankle repaired later this week. He's out for the rest of the season - including playoffs. Recovery time is 3-4 months.
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) April 3, 2018
On the play in question, Carlo went down awkwardly on his left ankle and had to leave the ice on a stretcher.
Brandon Carlo lands awkwardly on his left ankle and gets stretchered off the ice pic.twitter.com/lcISiyxbW2
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) March 31, 2018
It’s just the latest instance of the next man up mentality the Bruins have had to adopt all season as injuries have piled up among forwards, defensemen and goalies alike.
Boston had just gotten defenseman Zdeno Chara back Sunday against the Philadelphia Flyers after he missed nine games with an upper-body injury. And the Bruins will pair him with Charlie McAvoy, making his return tonight against Tampa Bay after missing 14 games with a sprained left knee ligament.
There’s no question if any team in these playoffs has proven it has the depth to withstand these types of blows, it’s the Bruins. And things could be worse; the team could have ill afforded to lose Carlo if Chara and McAvoy were still sidelined.
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The pairings behind Chara and McAvoy are Torey Krug and Nick Holden and Mat Grzelcyk and Kevan Miller. That depth should help carry the blue line through at least the first couple rounds of the playoffs…but the Bruins had better hope there are no further injuries to that group as they prepare for the playoffs.