3 Keys: Bruins at Panthers, Game 4 of Eastern 1st Round

(1A) Bruins at (WC2) Panthers
Eastern Conference First Round, Game 4
Boston leads best-of-7 series 2-1
3:30 p.m. ET; TNT, BSFL, NESN, SN1, TVAS

SUNRISE, Fla. --The Boston Bruins will try to carry momentum into Game 4 of the Eastern Conference First Round against the Florida Panthers at FLA Live Arena on Sunday.
The Bruins were without their top two centers -- Patrice Bergeron (upper body) did not travel to South Florida and David Krejci (upper body) was a late scratch -- but defeated the Panthers 4-2 in Game 3 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series.
"We saw Boston Bruins hockey," Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said after the win.
The Panthers, meanwhile, will be striving to play more like they did in the second half of the third period of Game 3, when they came back with two goals and put the Bruins on their heels a bit.
"Execution's just a way of saying 'passing'," Florida coach Paul Maurice said Saturday. "We didn't execute, we didn't pass the puck well (in Game 3). We had a whole bunch of challenges in passing the puck in that we were not where we needed to be. Just some patience in that part of our game."
RELATED: [Complete Bruins vs. Panthers series coverage]
Teams that take a 3-1 lead are 299-31 (90.6 percent) winning a best-of-7 series, including 3-1 last season.
Here are 3 keys for Game 4:

1. Who's in, who's out?

Krejci did not skate on Saturday, and Montgomery called him "questionable" for Game 4. It's also possible Jeremy Swayman starts for Boston instead of Linus Ullmark, who was a game-time decision for Game 3 but made 29 saves in the win.
"Yeah, there is thoughts of going with Jeremy," Montgomery said. "Just because, one, Jeremy's excellent and two, after tomorrow's game, there's three days between the next one, Games 4 and 5."
For the Panthers, defenseman Aaron Ekblad was back on the ice after he missed the third period of Game 3. Maurice said Ekblad, who did not enter concussion protocol, would be a game-time decision on Sunday.
"He came back in feeling much better today," Maurice said. "We'll need another day like that."
Maurice also did not confirm who would start for the Panthers. Alex Lyon was pulled in the third period of Game 3 after allowing three goals on 26 shots. Sergei Bobrovsky, who hadn't played since March 27, made eight saves on nine shots.

2. Center depth

The Bruins got a massive performance from Charlie Coyle in Game 3, one that had him variously described as a beast, an animal and a man, the last by Nick Foligno. He battled down low, leading to his deflection goal, and was hard to handle both in the offensive and defensive zones, driving hard to the net and killing penalties.
Without Bergeron and perhaps Krejci, who Montgomery said was "50-50" to play in Game 4, Coyle will have to take on that load again.
"He's a special player," Brad Marchand said of Coyle. "He's that big (6-foot-3, 223 pounds) and that skilled, and the way he can control the puck. He had a different gear last night. He definitely wanted to step up with 'Bergy' and 'Krech' being out."

3. Rely on history

This is nothing new for the Panthers, a team that spent the last few months of the season scratching and clawing to get into a wild card spot, eventually finishing as the second wild card from the East. So the Panthers need to rely on their experience and their fight in order not to head back to Boston for an elimination game on Wednesday.
"This feels like the last three months, after every loss the last three months," Maurice said. "You grind your video, you try to pump tires, you get some rest and you come back at them. I don't think it's necessarily an advantage but it's not new ground for us. We've seemed to be at our best with our stomach a little off coming into the game because you need it, you need the win."

Bruins projected lineup

Brad Marchand -- Charlie Coyle -- Trent Frederic
Nick Foligno -- Taylor Hall -- Jake DeBrusk
Tyler Bertuzzi -- Pavel Zacha -- David Pastrnak
Jakub Lauko -- Tomas Nosek -- Garnet Hathaway
Matt Grzelcyk -- Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm -- Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort -- Dmitry Orlov
Linus Ullmark
Jeremy Swayman
Scratched:Jakub Zboril, A.J. Greer, Connor Clifton, Brandon Bussi
Injured:Patrice Bergeron (upper body), David Krejci (upper body)

Panthers projected lineup

Eetu Luostarinen -- Aleksander Barkov -- Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe -- Sam Bennett -- Matthew Tkachuk
Ryan Lomberg -- Anton Lundell -- Anthony Duclair
Nick Cousins -- Eric Staal -- Colin White
Gustav Forsling -- Aaron Ekblad
Marc Staal -- Brandon Montour
Josh Mahura -- Radko Gudas
Alex Lyon
Sergei Bobrovsky
Scratched: Givani Smith, Mike Benning, Casey Fitzgerald, Zac Dalpe, Lucas Carlsson, Evan Fitzpatrick
Injured:Patric Hornqvist (concussion)
Status report
The Panthers recalled Carlsson, a defenseman, from Charlotte of the American Hockey League on Saturday.