Brandon Carlo, Jim Montgomery and the impact of a new voice on the Bruins: 'Something we really needed' (2024)

Brandon Carlo feels like he’s soaring. In just two captains’ practices this week at Warrior Ice Arena, the stay-at-home defenseman has unlocked sensations that would have been unfamiliar last year: freedom, creativity, lightness.

“These first couple days,” he said Wednesday, “I’ve never had so much fun just playing hockey again.”

An in-flight Carlo is a spectacle. He is a 6-foot-6, 220-pound titan whose size does not compromise his skating.

Carlo’s physical advantages, however, did little to shelter him from the chatter inside his head in 2021-22. The 25-year-old is serious, introspective and demanding. These are not necessarily helpful qualities when external criticism amplifies internal second-guessing.

“I feel like there’s just a certain calmness because I’m not worried about making a mistake,” Carlo said of his early re-acclimation. “That’s the thing that got in my head last year. I was just too worried about, essentially, f—ing up. I’ll just be blunt.”

The task of reminding Carlo of his errors fell on Bruce Cassidy. The former coach is not here anymore. It may not be a coincidence that Carlo’s first days back from his Colorado offseason home already feel sunnier.

Communication breakdown

Fifty-five games into his NHL career, Carlo experienced his first coaching change. Going from Claude Julien to Cassidy barely mattered to Carlo. The 20-year-old was on top of the world, partnering with Zdeno Chara in 2016-17 as an NHL rookie.

“My first year in this league, I feel like I did so well because I came in with no expectation,” said Carlo, who averaged 20:49 of ice time per game that season, third-most on the team after Chara and Torey Krug. “I went through each day with gratitude for being where I was. Because I wanted to be in the NHL. I was just enjoying every moment.”

In theory, Carlo’s happiness should have continued climbing to a 2021-22 peak. He and then-fiancee Mayson Corbett were spending their first year with daughter Wren, born just before training camp. The right-shot defenseman was in the first season of a six-year, $24.6 million contract. With David Krejci in Czechia, Carlo shared the second alternate captaincy with Charlie McAvoy and David Pastrnak.

Great is not the word Carlo would use to describe last season, though.

He averaged 19:42 of ice time per game, down from his previous 20:13 career average. Opponents averaged 51.39 five-on-five attempts per 60 minutes against the Bruins with Carlo on the ice, per Natural Stat Trick, the highest rate among team defensem*n.

There was no statistic to measure his unhappiness.

“Last year I had some mental battles for sure,” said Carlo. “Struggled at times with focusing too much on the wrong things: maybe what people viewed of me or the mistakes I was making. I was focusing too much on those rather than the positives. I feel like with the experience I have in the league up to this point, last year was probably the most influential year on my mental side of things.”

Cassidy left his best players alone. They had earned their keep in the league.

The former coach was more hands-on with those like Carlo and Jake DeBrusk, both 25, who had yet to advance to that cohort. He challenged them, and not usually with hugs and handshakes. After a turbulent shift, it was not uncommon for Cassidy to get in Carlo’s ear before he even made it back to the bench. It’s no surprise, then, that both Carlo and DeBrusk report excitement about the start of camp.

Jake DeBrusk refused to say whether he rescinded his trade request due to the firing of Bruce Cassidy or not.

What he did reiterate is that he's excited to move forward with the Bruins.

✍️ @FlutoShinzawahttps://t.co/SivzwXvvSo

— The Athletic NHL (@TheAthleticNHL) September 14, 2022

“It was tough,” said Carlo. “I feel strongly about when I say that with Butchy, I really respected him a lot. I think he has a great hockey mind. I think he’s a very smart coach. I just think through that, there was times that, yeah, it was hard. The bench scenarios when you’d come back and whatnot — you’re kind of getting beat down a little bit at times — was tough. But also, I felt he managed that pretty well with me. I think he knew me as a player and a personality. I’m thankful for that.”

Sometimes Cassidy, upon postgame video review, would be more constructive the following day. The cumulative effect of his firmness, though, took its toll. In a way, Cassidy’s approach encouraged player unification.

“The first three years, it really united our group,” Carlo said. “That’s something I can say was a positive influence on it. Because it was all of us working together as a team, just pulling together in the right ways when things were going wrong or hard. His influence was big in that department. If he was being hard on us, we would get closer as a group. I did recognize that.”

So far, things are different.

Green light

Carlo has yet to play a minute for Jim Montgomery. He cannot wait for his first shift.

Carlo and Montgomery recently met to review video. Montgomery showed Carlo clips of how he can adjust his defensive-zone coverage to be more of an up-ice presence.

“I can notice right off the bat how good a communicator he is,” Carlo said. “I feel like that’s something we really needed, that positive influence on the communication side of things. Throughout my first couple years, guys and coaches have told me they want me to do more things in the offensive aspect of the game. With all of that, it’s good to hear they believe I’m capable of that. It’s also a different story to be shown the situations and where they would see you having those opportunities. Monty already did that with me a little bit in video of certain situations he thinks I could get up the ice a little bit better.

“Just seeing it in video and communicating through things, I’ve noticed, has made me really excited for the opportunity to do that.”

Jim Montgomery’s turnaround in St. Louis, his personality and his history of performance convinced the Bruins he’s the best pick to be Bruce Cassidy’s replacement.@FlutoShinzawa, @seanshapiro and @jprutherford look at what Montgomery brings to Boston ⤵️https://t.co/ITPRzdBA4f

— The Athletic NHL (@TheAthleticNHL) July 1, 2022

For two years as an assistant coach in St. Louis, Montgomery worked with Colton Parayko. Like Carlo, Parayko is a right-shot defenseman. He is also 6-foot-6. Parayko has eight pounds on Carlo.

Defense is Parayko’s priority. But the 29-year-old has incorporated offense into his portfolio. Parayko has 206 career points in 498 games. Carlo has 70 points in 403 games. Montgomery sees some of his former player in his current one.

“He reminds me of Parayko,” said Montgomery. “He’s a gifted skater. He’s long. He can beat people up and down the ice. You can give him a little more encouragement to be a little more aggressive offensively. Because he’s going to get back defensively with his skating ability and his reach.”

During their video session, Montgomery and Carlo reviewed scenarios where the defenseman closed off plays in the corner. As a stay-at-homer, Carlo got in the practice of lingering in the corner and finishing his opponent.

Montgomery showed him how detaching from the battle could activate the offense. If the puck went across the ice to Hampus Lindholm, for example, Carlo could release from his opponent and make himself available in the middle of the defensive zone. Carlo could then be an outlet for Lindholm to initiate the exit.

Once he received the puck, Carlo could skate up the gut and kick it out to his in-stride forwards. He could drive to the net and draw defenders to create time and space for his teammates. Carlo might even be in close-quarters range to score.

Regardless of the outcome, Carlo loved what Montgomery was selling. He hadn’t heard such a pitch for a long time.

“The first couple years, I didn’t apply myself as much with getting up the ice like that. Then I just got comfortable being the defensive guy,” said Carlo, who often delegated up-ice rushes to Krug, his former partner. “Then people would just say things like, ‘Hey, I think you have more offensive ability.’ But wouldn’t really show me examples of where or how or coach me through that. It was more so just saying it and not giving me any idea. Or even when I came back to the bench, being like, ‘Hey, you did get up the ice there.’ That didn’t really happen very much.”

Big shoes to fill

Carlo will have a lot to do. In all likelihood, he will start the season in McAvoy’s spot next to Lindholm on the No. 1 pairing. Carlo is not McAvoy in many ways.

One of McAvoy’s gifts is the ability to play carefree without the fear of making mistakes. Carlo isn’t wired that way. Carlo gets into trouble when he begins to worry, even after six years in the league.

“The mental battle is hard,” said Carlo. “It’s different nowadays. This generation is a little different in the aspect of social media. You can find any bad you want. You can find some good. That’s what’s different. It’s not like how when these guys, these coaches, were playing. Maybe it was in the paper where he gave up a goal or something like that. It’s right in your face all the time if you want it, the negativity. I’ve definitely learned from that. I definitely limit my social media, especially throughout the season.”

Carlo knows he cannot compare himself to McAvoy or even consider replicating some of his contributions. They are different players and people.

Mistakes will happen. But Carlo knows it will be OK. He already feels a connection with his new coach. In turn, Montgomery is committed to learning how to make his players thrive.

“It’s why people like being a coach,” said Montgomery. “It’s so much fun. That’s your job — to figure out how to get the most out of people and how to help them get the most out of their own production. You can talk X’s and O’s all you want. That other part is the more important part.”

(Top photo of Brandon Carlo: Bob DeChiara / USA Today)