Here in New England we’ve now upgraded from just plain old Nor’Easters to “thunder snow” and “bomb cyclones”. No matter what your local weatherman wants to call it, we had a snow day yesterday. With a team full of rookies and twenty-somethings, I’m sure a day off to play in the snow was more than welcome; I know as a kid I would have been out there sledding, building a snow fort or having fun with a snowball fight. Since we all missed out on a chance to watch a fun hockey game last night, it got me to thinking about certain players and how many games some of them have missed (not due to snow days). Some of the information I came across was obvious, but there were a few numbers in particular that stuck out to me.

There is only one player on the Bruins roster who has played in every game over the last 2 seasons, and it’s not Zdeno Chara or Patrice Bergeron. That same player is 4th on the team (+17) in plus/minus rating, behind only Chara, Bergeron, and Brad Marchand. Over that span, only Torey Krug has fewer penalty minutes amongst Defensemen (okay, so you know he’s a defenseman now). What’s an even more eye-popping fun fact: there are six rookies who have been regulars in the active lineup this season, he is younger than five of them. That player is Brandon Carlo.

The second-year D man has been flying under the radar a little bit this year, and many may say he’s regressed from last season. Fact of the matter is, he has been one of the most durable, reliable, and consistent players on this roster, and he just turned 21 a month and a half ago. Call me old fashioned, but I appreciate an NHL Defenseman who can actually go out there and PLAY DEFENSE.

By now, everyone knows who Charlie McAvoy is. Charlie (the only player who’s younger than Carlo btw) is a once in a lifetime kind of talent, and he’s going to be on highlight reels for the next 15 years. If you go an entire game without hearing Brandon Carlo’s name, it’s probably because he’s playing a really solid brand of hockey; when he’s on his game and doing all the right things, you won’t hear his name much. Hell, in the years to come he might be on the ice with Charlie in all of those prolific highlights I mentioned.

Carlo, and the Bruins are at a crossroads, however: what type of player should Brandon Carlo become? Personally, he kind of reminds me of a young Kyle McLaren (both players go around 6’4″-6’5″ and 210lbs, give or take a few, and came into the league as teenagers). It’s hard to ignore that Carlo came flying out of the gate as a rookie, scoring 1G and 1A on 5 shots and putting up a +7 rating in his first three NHL games. I think that’s why people assume he’s regressed this year. Well, I hate to tell you, but he’s played 117 games since that hot start, and if you haven’t been watching you’re leaving out a lot of other improvements to his game.

Bruins fans have seen several young Defensive talents come and go (Johnny Boychuk, Dougie Hamilton, Colin Miller), and I think it’s reasonable to have some concern that Carlo might be trending that way. There’s a big difference between the two latter comparisons and the two former. McLaren and Boychuk weren’t just speedy point men who could shoot the puck (don’t get me wrong, both could BLAST the biscuit), they could also stand guys up at the blue line, deliver big hits, and be leaders on a top D-pair.

Much like those 2 physical blue-liners of the past, Carlo has had a few tough mentors of his own here in his brief time as a Bruin. Chara, as well as veterans Adam McQuaid and Kevan Miller play a disciplined defensive style that has clearly been rubbing off on Carlo. While I fully admit I can’t foresee him smashing any faces in any time soon, he has an increased role on the penalty kill, and overall more responsibilities have been made available to him when either McQuaid (83/120 games since 2016) or Miller (94/120 games since 2016) miss games. Further evidence that the coaching staff trusts Carlo is the fact that he is no longer paired with Chara, and can really take hold of a leadership role with Krug when the second unit is on the ice. Just for shits and giggles, here’s how all of these guys’ numbers looked as rookies:

Kyle McLaren: 5G, 12A = 17, 73 PIM +16 in 74 games in 1995-96

Johnny Boychuk: 5G, 10A = 15, 43 PIM +10 in 51 games in 2009-10

Adam McQuaid: 3G, 12A = 15, 96 PIM +30 in 67 games in 2010-11

Dougie Hamilton: 5G, 11A = 16, 14 PIM +4 in just 42* games in 2012-13

Kevan Miller: 1G, 5A = 6, 38 PIM +20 in 47 games in 2013-14

Colin Miller: 3G, 13A = 16, 39 PIM even in 42 games in 2015-16

Brandon Carlo: 6G, 10A = 16, 59 PIM +9 in 82 games in 2016-17

Clearly Dougie and Colin Miller are the most adept offensively of the bunch, but they also have the lowest +/- ratings. If Carlo can even put up 70% of what Dougie Hamilton has produced, while being a sound 200-foot player, he can cement his place on this team for a long time to come. If he puts on another 10-15 pounds, then all bets are off. This could very well be the beginning of a storm in Boston: not a Cyclogenesis, but a Carlo-genesis. ~That was probably corny, but I don’t care~ Jegs-