The Bruins rookie clearly has the requisite offensive skills but is showing improvement in the other end with Carlo.
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At first glance,
Brandon Carlo and
Mason Lohrei look to have similar profiles on the ice.
Carlo, a steady, stay-at-home anchor on the Bruins defense corps, has the frame needed to eat up pucks and snuff out scoring chances at 6 feet 5 inches and 217 pounds.
Lohrei is a virtual carbon copy at 6-5 and 211 pounds.
But the tale of the tape is usually where the comparison ends between the blue liners, especially when Lohrei gets the puck on his stick.
”It’s crazy seeing a guy that big be that mobile,” Carlo said. “The way that he moves around guys and just makes that extra move along the blue line when he’s the last man back — it’s fun to see. I don’t know if I would dream of doing that as much. But I love watching it.”
The Bruins would welcome Lohrei’s ability to ferry pucks to the net and orchestrate Grade A chances when activating off the blue line. But if the 2020 second-round pick wants to stick around the NHL ranks, he’ll need to take a page out of Carlo’s book and shore up his defensive game.
Now in his third call-up from AHL Providence, Lohrei has impressed coach
Jim Montgomery over this latest stint (4 points in five games, 19:09 ATOI) with his ability to get past poor shifts or games quickly.
”In this league, if you have an average or subpar game, that next game you’ve got to get it back right away,” Montgomery said after Thursday’s win. “And I thought he did that for us tonight. I really liked his response.”
Some growing pains were to be expected for an offensive-minded defenseman like Lohrei, who made the switch from forward when he was 16 years old.
But with
Hampus Lindholm still out with a lower-body injury, the Bruins have thrust Lohrei into regular minutes alongside Carlo.
Over their last five games together, the Lohrei-Carlo pairing has logged 50:16 of five-on-five ice time, with just 13.7 percent of faceoffs set in the offensive zone. But even with those heavy D-zone reps, the Bruins have outscored opponents, 4-2, over that time.
Montgomery stressed Carlo’s communication and “positive reinforcement” on the ice as a useful resource for a rookie like Lohrei. And after years of playing alongside a puck-mover in
Torey Krug, Carlo has welcomed the chance to play with another offensively gifted defenseman.
“I’ve always loved playing with guys who move the puck well,” Carlo said. “I think there are things that he can help me with, with moving the puck out of the zone, and then vice versa — I’d like to try and help him on the rush reads and whatnot defensively. I think we’re a very good match.”
“His approach to the game is great,” Carlo said. “I think his confidence has definitely always shown, but his calmness at times defensively has been great.
“I feel like we’re not trying to run out of position as much and we’re reading off of each other better. So just with those reads, I feel like he’s doing a lot better of a job.”
