Bergeron out again with injury, not illness

The Bruins were once again without

Patrice Bergeron for Wednesday night’s 6-3 loss at TD Garden in Game 2 of their first-round series against the Panthers. The captain, who missed Game 1 with an upper-body injury, skated on his own. Coach Jim Montgomery said Bergeron’s issue is not related to the illness that has been going around the team.

“He’s progressing well, so he’s day by day,” Montgomery said after the morning workout in Brighton. “But he’s a no for tonight. He’s such a pro. He’s such a competitor. Everybody knows he wants to be in. But the great thing about him is his ability to put his own personal feeling aside and still lead our group like he does.”

The Bruins, who made no lineup changes for Game 2, again deployed

Pavel Zacha as their No. 1 center. Though Bergeron remains heavily involved — participating in meetings and offering counsel wherever possible —

Brad Marchand and other veterans have tried to fill the leadership void.

“He’s been excellent,” Montgomery said of Marchand. “As have the other guys. Everybody knows that you don’t fill Patrice’s shoes with one person, but I think he has taken the lead.

“I’ve heard his voice more in the locker room, in between periods, and also the daily times where I’m walking in talking about what we’re going to do in practice, usually Patrice is talking, I hear Brad talking now.”

Uneven play at full tilt

Tyler Bertuzzi’s game has drawn the attention of Marchand, who knows something about getting under the skin of a playoff opponent. Bertuzzi had two assists in Game 1 and scored his first career playoff goal in Game 2.

“He’s always in the mix, always in the battles, goes to the dirty areas,” Marchand said priot to Game 2. “Those are guys that are frustrating to play against, even when he’s not running around — and he was a little bit.”

In the second round against Columbus in 2019, Marchand made Blue Jackets winger Cam Atkinson irate by stomping on his stick and breaking it when they lined up next to each other before a faceoff. As you’d expect, he loved seeing Bertuzzi snatch the stick of Panthers forward Nick Cousins and attempt to break it on the Bruins bench in Game 1.

“Saw that [Tuesday]. I was dying on that,” Marchand said. “Yeah, I didn’t notice that during the game. I love it.”

It remains unclear how the Bruins could afford to keep Bertuzzi, a wouldbe rental from the Red Wings whose contract (average annual value: $4.75 million) expires after this season. As with fellow hard-edged veterans Dmitry

Orlov and Garnet Hathaway, the Bruins would no doubt love to have Bertuzzi, 28, become a long-term Bruin.

“He plays that playoff style all year long,” Marchand said. “He’s a guy you want to go to war with.”

Bennett back for Florida

The return of Sam Bennett boosted the Panthers’ forward depth. The gritty veteran had been dealing with a groin injury down the stretch, missing the final 12 regular-season games and 18 of the last 25. He finished with 16-24—40 in 63 games. He started as the No. 2 center, between Eetu Luostarinen and Matthew Tkachuk. That bumped Anton Lundell to the third line, between

Ryan Lomberg and Sam Reinhart, and put Givani Smith in the press box. Smith — whose older brother Gemel had a three-game callup with the Bruins in 2018-19 —logged a team-low 5:25 in Game 1, and was tagged for interference in the first period before David Pastrnak’s power-play goal. Bennett scored a goal, landed a game-high seven shots and dished out three hits in 16:15.

Refs get busy late

Officials let a lot go in the first two periods, but in the final two minutes, seven players (Florida’s Radko Gudas and Lomberg, and Boston’s Trent Frederic, Nick Foligno, Hathaway, Derek Forbort, and Bertuzzi) received 10-minute misconducts . . . Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark made just 18 of his 24 saves at even strength (75 percent). He stopped four shots on the penalty kill and two on the power play . . . Tough night at the dot for the Bruins (47 percent), especially for Zacha (6 for 21, 32 percent) and David Krejci (8 for 19, 42 percent). Tomas Nosek (9 for 13, 69 percent) and Charlie Coyle (11 for 21, 55 percent) did handle their assignments . . . It was also going at even strength for the Bertuzzi-Krejci-Pastrnak line, which was outshot, 9-2, while together. Krejci, on the ice for two goals, was outshot by a team-worst 11-4 margin.

Restless night’s sleep

The toughest part of the playoffs, Marchand said, is getting a good night’s sleep. “When you’re laying there, your mind starts wandering about different plays that have happened during the game and different things you can do,” Marchand said. “It can be tough to watch the games at night. You go to turn it off and go to sleep and your mind’s still excited from watching the game.” . . . Marchand on 46-year-old

Zdeno Chara’s 3:38:23 time in the Boston Marathon: “He’s an animal. I texted him right before the race. It’s impressive how dedicated he is to everything he does. I was surprised he didn’t win the race, to be honest with you.” . . . Chara and Team Hoyt member Russ

Hoyt were the honorary fan banner captains for Game 2. Most people wave a flag with two hands on the pole; Chara only used one.