Bedard: Don't fret, the Bruins - when fully staffed - are still in control of this series

You can almost feel the panic start to set in from Burlington, Vt. to Newport, R.I.

Bruins fans, who were ready for their team's coronation in a four- or five-game series with a Patriots-esque March of the Frozen Tomato Cans (thanks Dan) since the Toronto series, are suddenly a little grumpy after the Bruins dropped Game 4, 4-2, on Monday night to even up the series. We're now set for a Best of 3, starting Thursday night at TD Garden.

This wasn't supposed to happen, especially after Saturday's 7-2 laugher in St. Louis where the Blues got embarrassed in front of their Gloria-loving fans.

The Bruins were supposed to keep the ball rolling through Game 4, come home and clinch the Cup in 5, then we were all supposed to bask in another championship parade on Saturday.

But that didn't happen.

And now you'll hear a lot moaning about the officiating and how Craig Berube's whining affected the refs. There will be two days spent talking about the Bruins' unproductive top two lines, and whether Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron are injured, and if David Pastrnak is still in the penalty box with his cold brew, and now turtling from first-period hits in the corner. There will also be a little chatter about how Tuukka Rask got beat on a wraparound, and his rebounds were too juicy.

Stop. Please.

The Blues are still in this series for one simple reason, and it has nothing to do with any of the above reasons.

The Cup Final will go at least a Game 6 because the Bruins dropped both games where they basically played the final two periods with five defensemen.

Yeah, yeah, Next man up. The Patriots do this all the time. Blah, blah, blah.

Do you realize what kind of effect that losing a defenseman for two periods has on a team, as opposed to losing a forward? And it's happened twice to these Bruins, and they've dropped both games.

Some teams don't even roll four forward lines — they just sprinkle the checking line in as-needed when the fellas need a rest. So if you lose one forward, you really have a spare one, so it's easy to make do.

With three pairs on defense, you're already going with the minimum. So when one goes out — especially a guy like Zdeno Chara, who logs a ton of minutes on the penalty kill — things totally get thrown out of whack.

Let's just take Charlie McAvoy, Chara's normal linemate, as an example.

In Game 3, his defensive pairings were Chara (17:36), John Moore (3:33) and Torey Krug (3:04).

After Chara left just four minutes into the second period on Monday, McAvoy's pairings looked like this: Moore (9:10), Chara (6:58) and Connor Clifton (4:57).

McAvoy played with Moore-Clifton nearly as much as he played with Chara in Game 3.

Yeah, there's a big difference there.

But it's not only personnel. Having fewer defensemen and mixing and matching along the blue line allows the Blues to get into their heavy forecheck and puck possession game.

Did you notice the only two times in this series where you felt how heavy the Blues were, happened in the second and third periods after the Bruins lost Matt Grzelcyk (Game 2) and Chara (Game 4)?

And don't underestimate the importance of the second period in all this. That is the period of the long change for each squad, when the bench is located in the offensive zone (it's in the defensive zone for the first and third periods). It's very hard for the defense to change in that period — the dump-in has to be perfect — and breakaways going to the other end of the ice are more prevalent. Combine being short-staffed and the difficulty in getting off the ice, and you have the makings of a doubly tired defense — which carries over for the rest of the game. That's what happened in Game 2, and it's what happened last night.

If Grzelcyk and Chara went out of the game in, say, the third period or even much later in the second, it would have been much more manageable for the Bruins. Both games were the worst-case scenarios for the Bruins and they paid the price.

That's not to say the Bruins couldn't have been better on defense or, especially, with the forwards, who seemed to be doing more watching in the defensive zone than helping out their gassed mates. Not to say anything about their no-show on the offensive end as well.

"We’ve talked a lot about the defense here,” Bruce Cassidy said. “Personally, I think our forwards have to do a way better job with our D out. The onus has to go on them. They’ve got to pull their weight in terms of puck support, helping out the D, finishing some plays. We had some lines tonight that had very few shot attempts."

Cassidy never pulls punches. And that was him calling out his forwards for being passengers for most of the night.

That's all true, and you should expect the Bruins to be better after this one.

But let's also not forget, with the two off days between Games 4 and 5 coming, that the Bruins have dominated this series when they've had a full complement of defensemen. And the Blues have played their best hockey when the Bruins have been shorthanded.

Chara and Grzelcyk may not play again this series. That will hurt, for sure, but it won't decide this series.

Giving the Bruins a full three lines on defense, for a full 60 minutes from here on out, will.