Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Brandon Carlo is ready to hit the ice against some familiar faces, and perhaps go beyond enemy lines.

Toronto hosts the Boston Bruins on Saturday at Scotiabank Arena, and Carlo is excited to suit up against his former club. The towering defenceman spent parts of 10 seasons with the Bruins’ organization, and now gets a chance to be on the other side of one of hockey’s best rivalries.

“Lots of familiar faces on the other side, but overall, enough time has passed where I think it’s a good thing to be in this situation, and an opportunity to play against guys I used to compete with every day in practice,” Carlo said prior to Saturday’s optional morning skate.

Carlo has a ton of friends he’s still very close with on the Bruins, and admitted while he’s certainly getting prepared to try and take two points from the Bruins, it was nice to spend his off day Friday by catching up with the enemy.

“I had dinner with six or seven guys, it was great to see them, nice to catch up,” Carlo said. “They got some new things going on with their group, I got a little insight to what it’s like behind enemy lines. It’s been good to see everybody, obviously, those friendships will last a lifetime.”

Carlo hasn’t necessarily had the strongest starts to his Maple Leafs’ tenure, but has shown flashes of brilliance when it comes to shutting down opponents in the defensive end. He’s been primarily paired with Morgan Rielly since joining the Leafs, but some wonder if there’s a better pairing out there for him as the duo haven’t shown enough consistent chemistry throughout the first month of this season.

Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving dealt a conditional first-rounder, a fourth-rounder, and a former first-round pick in Fraser Minten to land Carlo last season, which shocked many as it’s not very common to see two rivals make such a significant deal together. While Carlo is happy about the move, he doesn’t get too caught up in the specifics of the trade, or the impact Minten’s made on the Bruins’ organization.

“No, not necessarily. I think for myself, ever since I got traded it’s kind of just been a mentality of going one day at a time, focusing on what I can do to be the best version of myself each day. I haven’t really paid too much attention there. I think it’s a compliment in a way that he was a first-round guy and we kind of got swapped for each other.”

Carlo went on to mention he’d love to score on Jeremy Swayman, one of his closest friends from the team. He’s yet to hit the back of the net with the Maple Leafs, recording five assists in the 34 combined regular season games he’s suited up for in Toronto. Carlo doesn’t feel like a scapegoat being dealt from Boston, as he’s noticed the amount of changes the Bruins made to their roster, but thinks it’s their culture that makes the Bruins such a tough team to play against.

“It’s nice that there’s that turnover. It doesn’t make you feel as left out, I guess you could say. Overall, I think they still have a great makeup of their group, and the culture that Zdeno (Chara), ‘Bergie’ (Patrice Bergeron), and ‘Marchie’ (Brad Marchand) created, will last a very long time regardless of who is there.”

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