Brandon Carlo completes whirlwind long weekend with huge goal for Bruins
The Bruins pulled out the big guns to get defenseman Brandon Carlo down to Sunrise for Monday’s Game 1 win over the Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena.
Still in Boston while the rest of his teammates flew down to Florida on Sunday afternoon, Carlo’s reasons for being back in Boston filed under the B’s mantra of “family first.” Shortly after the Black and Gold’s Game 7 victory over the Maple Leafs, Carlo got the call that his wife Mayson was officially going into labor. The process was not an in-and-out kind of procedure, either, with the healthy baby boy coming into the world at around 3 a.m. Monday morning, and with the organization needing to arrange a private jet to get the defense-first defender down to Florida in time for puck drop.
Carlo rewarded that gift, and the gift of a new child added to their family, in the best way possible, too, with a key goal to help the Bruins cruise to a 5-1 victory over the Panthers in Game 1.
“Definitely 24 hours that I won’t forget,” Carlo said. “I don’t score very often, so, very cool experience for me. And, you know, there was a part played there by God, so I’m very thankful.”
The goal was the headliner in what was a complete game for Carlo, too, with the 6-foot-5 defenseman credited with a team-best plus-3 rating, while his five hits were tied for the second-most among all Boston skaters, trailing only Derek Forbort’s team-leading six hits.
Carlo’s availability was a little up in the air at certain points — his plane didn’t land in Fort Lauderdale until after 5 p.m. — and the Bruins had contingency plans in the event that he wasn’t able to go, be it because of time constraints or physical exhaustion after what was a lengthy delivery process in Boston.
“We sped it up as fast as we could. We were flipping her around, putting her upside down, [doing] whatever we could do to get that baby out of there,” Carlo revealed. “It was great because last night we, finally got to sleep for like an hour and then the doctor came in and said, ‘Alright, let’s get this process going’ and [the baby] popped out about 30 minutes later.”
But once Carlo arrived to the rink and the team got to have their moment with No. 25, there seemed to be no way that Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery was going to keep Carlo out of action.
“You know, he goes through the whole process, has very little sleep, and when you have incredible experiences in life, you know, like the birth of a child, it’s amazing the energy it gives you,” Montgomery said following the victory. “And that’s why I knew when he got here we were gonna put him in the lineup, because, I mean, the birth of my kids, like, it’s like winning a championship.
“You have adrenaline like you can’t believe for three days.”