If Bruins can’t beat Panthers, be like them

The Panthers, fresh off scattering the Bruins to various poolside cabanas and swanky golf courses, open up the best-of-seven Eastern conference finals vs. the rangers Wednesday night at madison square garden. if they can grind through the Blueshirts as they did the Black and gold, the Panthers will reach the stanley cup Final for a second straight season.

“Florida is a great team,” Bruins captain Brad marchand said sunday as the Bruins packed their goods for a final time in Brighton. “What i like about their group is, they play a playoff-type style. They’re confident with their structure. They play their game without fault and just keep going. They don’t change.

“They believe in their structure — and just keep going.”

Be it right or wrong, and marchand is inclined to disagree with the premise, the Panthers must be considered a litmus for the Bruins. This was the second year in a row they’ve seen their bountiful regular-season success rendered fool’s gold under the intensity and pressure of Florida’s thorough, meticulous playoff attack.

The Panthers once again proved to be faster, harder on pucks, vastly more plentiful with their shots, and simply more proficient at finishing their scoring chances — the latter feat all the more impressive given an otherworldly Jeremy swayman in the Boston net.

To win the cup means beating the best, and from a Boston perspective, Florida has become the team it can’t beat at this time of year. it was the first time since the Devils in ‘94 and ‘95 that the same team ushered the Bruins out of the playoffs in consecutive springs. The Devils in ‘95 went on to win the cup, something that looks well within the reach of the Panthers.

The difference between the teams this time around? By the eye of Brandon carlo, “being assertive” proved to be a “little bit of a separator between the two groups.” spot on, carlo.

“Just their entire game . . . breaking out pucks . . . just having that mentality to stay assertive,’' said the veteran defenseman. “At times, and i’m thinking of the games we lost, 6-1 and 6-2, we were kind of waiting for the game to come to us. you never really see that in them. Even if they’re down by a goal, they continue to come at you in the same way.”

strong. relentless. consistent. Florida general manager Bill Zito branded it his club’s method of “grace

ful brutality” before the postseason began. the bruins couldn’t match the grace or the grunge.

All of it was the trademark of a Panthers club that succeeded even without a major contribution from Matthew tkachuk. their top dog and instigator on offense, tkachuk potted a goal in the series opener, then chipped in with a ho-hum four assists over the next five games. the big boy barely wrinkled his nose, never mind flex biceps. Yet the Panthers won four of those next five, by the lopsided scoring margin of 18-8. Unlike most teams, they got the job done without their best players being their best players. A true rarity at this time of season.

How do the bruins put more on the table? that’s the charge of team president cam Neely and GM Don Sweeney, who’ll join charlie Jacobs and coach Jim Montgomery Wednesday at the Garden for the annual endof-season press conference. Neely and Sweeney have a little bit north of $20 million to spend this summer, money they’ll use to keep some assets (most importantly Swayman) and also to land a free agent or two.

Neither Sweeney nor Neely will offer up names of potential free agent targets, be it now or even before the UfA market opens July 1. they might not even say the quiet part out loud: the overarching need for a bona fide No. 1 center who can drive a more determined, grittier, obstinate, and potent offense.

to take on the Panthers or other bona fide contenders in the original 32, the bruins also need to add some of those steely ingredients in a topsix winger, one who can bring at least Jake Debrusk levels of production along with pugnacity, a bit of broadshouldered truculence. they don’t need a fighter, but they need more forwards, throughout the lineup, who show up hungry to fight for pucks, win one-on-one puck battles, get to high-danger scoring areas and . . . above all . . . finish . . . finish . . . finish. they need that in back, too, where Derek forbort (now a free agent) offered those qualities on the No. 3 pairing. they need someone with forbort’s long stick and battle factor who can play, say, 20 minutes as a top-four contributor, which would allow charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, and carlo to be more productive on both sides of the puck across the nightly 60:00.

Marchand, ever the realist, was sincere in his praise of the Panthers, comments echoed throughout the room including by charlie coyle, McAvoy, David Pastrnak, and Pat Maroon, just to name a few that your faithful puck chronicler chatted with during Lockers-and-Lamentations Day.

“Listen, for me, I think florida is a helluva hockey team,” said Maroon, the owner of three cup rings and a sharp, realistic eye. “they play the same way all the time. they are simple. they are hard. they tight check. they do everything the right way.”

What Maroon, Marchand, McAvoy, coyle, and Pastrnak equally opine is that the bruins “are close”. . . that they’re “right there” . . . that the “margins are thin” . . . that with a “break here or there,” they, like the Panthers, would be four wins from returning to the cup final for the first time since ’19.

“Do I look at florida or other teams and say we need to get there? No, I don’t,” Marchand emphatically stated. “We are right there. We are good enough. We just didn’t get that one more play that we needed. that doesn’t mean that it’s not going to come next year. I think this group can get it done.”

No surprise to hear that from Marchand. He is the captain. He also is wired with that obstinate, unremitting Li’l ball o’ Hate gene that has made him one of the game’s top offensive producers for the better part of 10 years now.

If the bruins had just two or three more on the roster wired a la Marchand, they’d be, well, a lot closer to the bunch of talented, ornery, and graceful brutalists who’ll be lining up against the Rangers. they’d also be closer to the Rangers, who are about to feel the deep bite of those Panther fangs.

In theory, the bruins are close, with an ample sprinkling of talented parts, backed by the best goalie they’ve ever drafted and developed. In reality, all of that has proven to make for a boffo regular season, topped off these last two years by a big bonk on the nose from a stiffer, more playoff-fit florida squad.

close, maybe. true cup contenders, not close.

the grind goes on, the elusive cup gone elsewhere, with it left once again for Neely and Sweeney to deliver the goods for a different ending.