Bruins playoff notebook: Bergeron returns to practice with lines in a blender once again

The Bruins returned to practice Tuesday at Warrior Ice Arena after sweeping Games 3 and 4 against the Panthers down in Florida to take a commanding 3-1 series lead. Game 5 is 7 p.m. ET Wednesday at TD Garden.

SERIES SCHEDULE

Game 1: Bruins win, 3-1
Game 2: Panthers win, 6-3
Game 3: Bruins win, 4-2
Game 4: Bruins win, 6-2
Game 5: Wednesday, April 26 at 7 p.m. AT BOSTON (TV: TBD | RADIO: 98.5 The Sports Hub)
Game 6: Friday, April 28 TBD AT FLORIDA (TV: TBD | RADIO: 98.5 The Sports Hub)
Game 7: Sunday, April 30 TBD AT BOSTON (TV: TBD | RADIO: 98.5 The Sports Hub) 

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Patrice Bergeron returned to practice for the first time since going down with an upper-body injury in the regular-season finale at Montreal on April 13. 

After skating on his own last week and having more time to rest back in Boston while the B's took care of business in Florida, No. 37 was a full participant, donning a regular practice sweater.

"Feeling good," Bergeron, who's taking it "day-by-day" said. "Felt good on the ice today. ... Today's a good day. We'll see how I feel tomorrow. Not anticipating any setbacks."

Jim Montgomery said Bergeron has "a couple" more boxes to check after his first full practice. They'll see how he feels Wednesday morning.

After Montgomery shook up his lines during the road swing in Florida, he put them back into the proverbial blender on Tuesday. Bergeron centered a line with Tyler Bertuzzi and David Pastrnak in addition to being back at his usual post on the top power-play unit. The fourth line and defensive pairs remained the same, while the top-nine forwards had a different look with Trent Frederic joining A.J. Greer as an extra

Montgomery said he simply wanted to try something new.

"It's just for me to take a look at lines," he said. "I know what [Brad Marchand] and Bergy look like together. I don't know if those are going to be our lines tomorrow."

The B's skipper joked that it might take some adjustments for No. 63 if he and Bergeron remain separated in Game 5: "Like I said with him, 'Marchy, the tough part is if I say Bergeron's line is up, we might get too many men because you're not on his line.'"

Bergeron said, "I’ve said it many times that I have so much respect and so much chemistry with Brad, but that being said, I can play with anyone, and I want to play with anyone. I think the guys have so much talent. Whoever is on my left side or my right side, on this team it doesn’t really matter. The depth is there, and you have to do your job. That’s what it’s all about. It’s about bringing what you can bring to the table, no matter who’s alongside you.”

Marchand and Charlie Coyle were a strong duo together in Games 3 and 4 in Florida, while Nick Foligno and Taylor Hall each came alive as well. Hall, Pavel Zacha and Jake DeBrusk were together toward the end of Game 4. That trio capitalized on a rush for DeBrusk's second of the game to make it a two-goal lead in the third period. The fourth unit of Jakub Lauko-Tomas Nosek-Garnet Hathaway was intact. 

The line shakeup leaves Frederic in a peculiar position as one of the odd men out after a career season that saw him put him 17 goals and 31 points. Montgomery went back to just wanting to get a peek at guys in different spots.

"I know what Freddy's done, and I like what certain guys have done," he said. "I haven't seen Fliggy on the right side with potentially a hard matchup, so that's it. I just wanted to see what that would look like. I know they had a couple of 3-on-2 drills. So, I just wanted to see what the lines would look like that way."

Linus Ullmark on Matthew Tkachuk and a little red horse

Ahead of his chat with the media throng in attendance at Warrior, BSJ had the chance to catch up with Linus Ullmark 1-on-1 for a few minutes. 

Ullmark threw down his glove and blocker before ripping off his mask at the end of Game 4 in an attempt to get at Matthew Tkachuk. The pesky Panthers forward got him high with some stickwork at the end of the play before getting a shot in at the end of a scrum near Ullmark's crease. The B's netminder said he had no patience for the extracurriculars.

“Nothing much, really," Ullmark said of what was going through his head. "We have all that stuff going on behind the net  – the guys sticking up for each other. When someone goes into you as well that late, it’s something that you want to stick up for yourself as well and not take any unnecessary stuff, obviously. There’s nothing else to it. I want to stick up for myself a little bit, and that’s what I did.”

He later told reporters, "It's not something that I'm actively seeking out, especially late in the game like that. If it was a 3-2 game, I wouldn't have done anything. It was 5-2, so it was a little bit of a different feeling to it, I would say. It's kind of hard to explain, but if you're up 5-2, there's no need for stupid stuff like that, obviously." He added that it was mostly "surprise" among the Bruins after the incident, and he quickly heard from his mother and brother. 

No. 35 was a game-time decision ahead of Game 3 before some more uncertainty around his status going into Game 4 with Montgomery saying there was some thought to going with Jeremy Swayman, but he made 29 saves on Friday before 41 stops ahead of exiting Sunday. Ullmark says he's good to go.

"I feel good," Ullmark said. "It's always like that. You know, you feel different every day. Every new game is a new challenge. It's been good so far."

During the last three home games (Washington and Games 1 and 2 against Florida), I couldn't help but notice a miniature red horse above Ullmark's stall at TD Garden. It's a Dalecarlian horse, a traditional, carved wooden statue of a horse that has been a children's toy or used to symbolically represent the province Delarna and Sweden as a whole. 

Ullmark, who is from the Ångermanland province, doesn't expect to see it around the room for now.

“Yeah, we threw it out," he joked. "It’s just a Swedish thing. Someone gave it to me at the end of the season. It doesn’t have a place in the locker room for the time being, so it’s not there anymore. No [it wasn’t about luck]. It’s just like a traditional Swedish thing that you used to have in the households back in the day. Not all of them, but in certain areas, especially in the middle part.”

David Krejci out for Game 5, but a possibility for Game 6

Don Sweeney said Monday that Krejci would undergo more testing before the team got an update on his status.

Krejci did not skate with the team on Tuesday, but was on the ice on his own ahead of the full practice after missing Games 3 and 4 with an upper-body ailment. He will not play Game 5.

"He's progressing well, but he won't be available Wednesday, no," Montgomery said before adding Krejci would "potentially" be available for a possible Game 6 on Friday.

The center missed the last six games of the regular season with a lower-body injury before. He did not look himself upon returning for the first two games against Florida. 

Panthers with question marks of their own

Aaron Ekblad and Anthony Duclair both missed Game 4 for the Cats. Ekblad left Game 3 after a hard, inadvertent collision with Charlie McAvoy, and Duclair was a very late scratch on Sunday after he "tweaked" something in warmups Paul Maurice said postgame.

Both were full participants in Florida's practice on Tuesday. Maurice said they're both good to go for Game 5. 

Meanwhile, Sam Bennett and Ryan Lomberg were absent from the Panthers' skate. Maurice was not specific on either player's status.

"One will be in for sure, and one will be a game-time decision," he told reporters.

Lomberg has been a physical pest so far in the series. He and Pavel Zacha got into it on Sunday before Zacha had enough and delivered a cross-check up high. 

At the end of Game 2, Lomberg and Frederic locked up before Lomberg had a hold of Frederic at the bottom of the pile-up. Frederic told reporters in Florida that Lomberg was choking him "a little bit."