When the Bruins took the Warrior Ice Arena sheet for their first post-season practice on Saturday, there was a one notable absence. Soon, a second key player would leave the session early.

Captain Patrice Bergeron, who left the regular season finale in Montreal with what was termed an “upper body” injury, did not suit up while his long-time linemate Brad Marchand left after a few twirls and line rushes.

But the word of the week – “precautionary” – held for another day.

“We’re just giving (Bergeron) extra rest. He’s had a long year. Same thing with Marchie,” said coach Jim Montgomery. “Marchie wanted to give it a try today and he…had a little bit of soreness so I said ‘Get off the ice.’ And we knew it was going to be a hard practice, so I was going to be very cautious. (Matt Grzelcyk) is a little sore, so he didn’t partake in the scrimmage portion of it. It’s just precautionary. The reason I wanted to have a hard practice with some scrimmage involved is we’re looking at (Nick) Foligno and (Derek) Forbort. We want to see where their conditioning and game speed is and how they react to that live, and then how the bodies adjust (Sunday).”

Montgomery said that Bergeron has been battling a nagging injury. While it was announced as an upper body injury, the NESN broadcast of the Montreal game showed the captain stretching out his left leg while at the bench. What exactly it is anyone’s guess. During the line rushes, Pavel Zacha filled in for Bergeron between Jake DeBrusk and Marchand.

“It’s something he’s dealt with before and he knows how to deal with it,” said Montgomery….

A couple of important player did return to practice. One was goalie Linus Ullmark, who set off panic buttons everywhere when he left Tuesday’s game with a lower body injury he appeared to suffer on a post-to-post push-off. He didn’t practice with the team on Wednesday or travel to the season finale in Montreal.

“We don’t have issues with him. He was out there in practice and I thought he performed well,” said Montgomery.

Several weeks ago, Montgomery said that Ullmark was going to be the Game 1 starter and then they’ll go from there. Asked on Saturday if Ullmark would still be Monday’s starter against the Florida Panthers, Montgomery demurred.

“I’ll let (goalie coach Bob Essensa) make a decision and I’ll let you know on Monday,” said the coach.

Now, was that Montgomery simply putting on his playoff-mode hat or was it actual vacillation? You be the judge. But the post-season intrigue has begun. Ullmark did not speak with with reporters on Saturday.

David Krejci, who missed the last six regular season games, was also a full participant in practice skating between Tyler Bertuzzi and David Pastrnak.

Foligno was on the fourth line with Tomas Nosek and Garnet Hathaway. Forbort skated on a third defense pairing with Connor Clifton while Grzelcyk was on a fourth pair with Jakub Zboril.

How that plays out remains to be seen.

“I thought Foligno looked really good. I thought there was a little rustiness on Forbort,” said Montgomery.

All things considered, Montgomery put a positive spin on his team’s overall health.

“We’re happy with our health right now, considering the long year,” he said. “We have some forwards that are old, our D corps is relatively young and really good. But we have some (older) forwards and that’s why we took the precautionary (route) with us having a couple of days rest.”…

The B’s home record speaks for itself. They set a record for wins with a 34-4-3 mark at the Garden. But some of their most challenging games have come with at least two days off prior. Their first regulation at home to Seattle came after three days off, their second regulation defeat came on the first game after the All-Star break and a third regulation loss to Edmonton occurred after four full days off.

The B’s will be working on three days without playing a game for Game 1 on Monday. They scored three goals in those three games.

“You worry about being in a rhythm in a lot of those,” said Montgomery. “Almost every one of those, we gave two days off and physiologically, giving two days off isn’t good. But when you’re trying to get through the regular season, such a long year, it has the added potential of how much it helps players recover and how good we feel for the length of the season, so nagging injuries heal a little more with two days off. I don’t think this is the same case. We had one day off…We don’t think it’s going to be any issue at all for being rusty in he first period.”…

Florida goalie Alex Lyon, considered the back-up to Sergei Bobrovsky,carried the Panthers down the stretch and it’s a good bet he’d get the first shot against the B’s.

“He’s had a great two-month run here with Florida. He might be the biggest reason they’re in the playoffs. He’s a confident goalie that we’re going to have to get in front of and make sure he has a hard time finding the puck like he’s been seeing it,” said Montgomery…

While the B’s have played Dmity Orlov on a third pair often down the stretch, they loaded him up on the top pair with Charlie McAvoy in Saturday’s practice…

Presuming Bergeron can come back and Foligno can play, that will leave a tough decision for Montgomery. The most logical choice to come out would be for Trent Frederic, but being logical doesn’t make it easy. Frederic had a career high 17 goals and his confidence in holding on to the puck has vastly grown. Such is life on an incredibly deep team.