If Patrice Bergeron were to retire, if David Krejci were to remain playing in the Czech Republic or retire himself, if neither top center were to play for the Bruins this season? What would they be?
It became merely a thought exercise last summer, with both Bergeron and Krejci opting to sign matching one-year contracts with the Bruins on Aug. 8 to return to the only teams they've known in their NHL careers.
But on Friday, as the Bruins and Florida Panthers played in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference First Round, the Bruins had to face head-on what they had only feared: No Bergeron. No Krejci.
No problem.
The Bruins turned in a statement game with an undermanned squad, beating the Panthers at FLA Live Arena on Friday, 4-2, to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series.
"It's tough to replace a couple of guys like that," forward Charlie Coyle said. "You can't. You can't solely do that.
"It takes everyone. You could tell, everyone kind of brought it tonight. Everyone knew he had to take on a little more responsibility, and we do that as a unit. Everyone did that. You can't replace a Patrice Bergeron, a David Krejci, you just can't. But we do it together. Every guy pitches in."
RELATED: [Complete Bruins vs. Panthers series coverage]
It was understood heading into the game that Bergeron would not be there -- he had not traveled to Florida from Boston -- but Krejci was supposed to be in the lineup, becoming a late scratch because of an upper-body injury that coach Jim Montgomery saying it was "50/50" that he would play in Game 4.
And still, the Bruins looked significantly better than they had in a messy 6-3 loss in Game 2 at TD Garden on Wednesday, when the Panthers came in and stole a game on the road. The Bruins tightened up, found their game and their defensive structure, and took back control of the series.
"You could see it: We were smothering, we were hard to get by," said forward Nick Foligno, who stepped in for Krejci after the late scratch. "Every time they came up, we were a four- or five-man front. That's tough. You know when you play against it how hard it is to get through. When you do that, just attrition, it wears that team down. Any team down.
"That's what we've done all year long. That's the makeup of our team."
Without Bergeron and Krejci, the most noticeable center on the ice was Coyle, a player who turned in a game that had his teammates reaching for their thesaurus.
"He's just a man," Foligno said. "That's a weird compliment but it is. He's a beast. He's so lanky and long but also strong. When he puts his body into a puck or into another body, you're not getting it. He really drives our team that way."
Coyle was responsible for the team's second goal, winning a net-front battle with Aleksander Barkov, standing his ground with each bump and thump, long enough that he was there to tip Brad Marchand's shot past Panthers goalie Alex Lyon at 6:00 of the second period. He had five shots on goal, the most of anyone in the game not named David Pastrnak (seven) and drew two penalties.
"He just seemed like he was a monster," Montgomery said. "He was a man possessed out there, the way he just took pucks to the net. Loved him in the faceoff dot. I thought he controlled the middle of the ice. I thought at both goal lines he made really good plays. He ended plays in our zone, he made plays in their zone."
