Brandon Carlo was victim to a high and dirty hit from Washington Capitals right winger Tom Wilson on Friday night.
The Boston Bruins pulled away with the ultimate 5-1 win, and both Jarred Tinordi and Trent Frederic threw down with Wilson to teach him a lesson.
But Boston lost Carlo for the remainder of the game. The team ruled him out after he had to be helped off the ice before he went down for several minutes.
There was no penalty call after Wilson pressed Carlo's head up against the glass in a risky hit.
"He hit him clearly in the head, you know. Brandon's in an ambulance, goes to the hospital obviously from that hit," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy shared in his postgame press conference.
"Clearly it looked like to me he got him right in the head. Defenseless player. Predatory hit from a player that's done that before, so I don't understand why there wasn't a penalty called on the ice," he added. "They huddled up but I did not get an explanation why. But it's out of our hands after that, we just got to play hockey and try to stick together as a team, play the right way."
Boston stuck together indeed, especially considering those two scraps with Wilson sandwiched a handful of goals.
"Sometimes when that stuff happens and there's no call and the players kind of settle it on the ice in their own way," Cassidy said. "And we felt that we pushed back and did what we could do and win the hockey game and tried to let that particular player know that that was unnecessary so that's how we handled it... I assume we'll get looked at by the National Hockey League, and they'll make their decision."
Cassidy said he did not speak to Carlo before he left TD Garden, and the Bruins coach is unaware if their defenseman will be spending the night in the hospital.
"I don't know the answer to either one of those questions," Cassidy said. "You can probably make your own call on that one considering, you know, the hit was directly to his head."
