Buckley: The Bruins have found the sweet spot of aggressive playoff hockey

For the record, the Bruins defeated the Florida Panthers 6-2 in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals Sunday afternoon at FLA Live Arena.

Fine. But here’s another way to look at it: Game 3, Cont. Put those two games in the same blender that Bruins coach Jim Montgomery has used to assemble his line, and you get six stretches of eyes-on-the-prize aggression. You get six episodes to build a wall in the middle of the ice and make the Panthers pay for it. You get six periods of the Bruins jamming so many players in front of the Florida net that after a while it looks like they’re gathering for a team photo.

Oh, and let’s not forget six periods of avoiding the kind of post-whistle cheer that gets the crowd going and looks great on a highlight reel, but has a way of knocking teams off the Bruins, in this case, off their game.

Exactly How did the Bruins stay true to their mindset during this festive and fun visit to Sunrise, Fla.? I’m assuming you already know where I’m going with this, but here goes: Turns out the Bruins’ biggest post-whistle disruptor was goaltender Linus Ullmark, who dropped the gloves, meaning the glove and the block with Matthew. Tkachuk in the waning minutes of Sunday’s Game 4.

Matthew Tkachuk and Linus Ullmark. (Jasen Vinlove/USA Today)

Ullmark received a 10-minute misconduct that doomed her long-shot Lady Byng nomination. But that was it in the old-time, Big, Bad Bruins build. There are of course two ways to look at this: either Ullmark shouldn’t take such chances because he may is already dealing with some kind of health issue, or jeez, the guy hit his breaking point, as teammate Jake DeBrusk (two goals) later expressed after being robbed by Tkachuk.

But whatever. The episode turned out to be more of a comedy than a drama, meaning the Bruins did little to nothing on Sunday, leading Montgomery to think these Cowboys need to be contained.

Now, for those who don’t understand why this is important, future postgame analyst Brad Marchand explains what the Panthers were trying to do and what the Bruins were trying to do:

They (the Panthers) seem to be successful at that,” he said. They build a lot of emotion into their game after the whistles and create strikes. A lot of guys get a kick out of it. It hasn’t really been the way we’ve played all year, so when we can play hard between the whistles and then skate away, it definitely allows us to stay in the right mindset to play the way we want to play. They play a very emotional game all the way, they want to get into it after the whistle, a lot of guys are talking. And that’s their game. They have been very successful at that. But we had success playing the way we play.

Repeat, Brad Marchand spoke. Brad Marchand. That’s right, The Big Ball of Hate has become a big advocate for good, clean hockey. If anyone needed more proof that the Bruins are buying what Montgomery is selling, there it is.

After the Bruins’ stunning 6-3 loss to the Panthers in Game 2 last week in Boston, Montgomery talked about the disastrous turnovers and hinted at possible changes. The result: Those six near-glorious innings in Sunrise, Fla., after which a very happy Montgomery went on NESN and said: Back to TD Garden, baby.

A bonus for the Bruins is that they’ve managed to play tight, aggressive hockey while bypassing the nuts who derail game plans. The poster boy for what the Bruins are trying to do is defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who just five seconds into Game 3 on Friday night made a very clean, very aggressive, very building-shaking, very tone-setting hit on Eetu Luostarinen.

McVoys Hit Parade continued in Game 4, including a layup by Tkachuk in the first period. Remember the tragic and ill-fated Charlie of Kingston Trio fame on the MTA? If that Charlie had been as aggressive as Charlie was on the Bruins, he would have been booked that the conductor lets him off the train at Jamaica Plain.

Remember, the Bruins not only had the best record in the NHL during the regular season, but they made all kinds of history while doing so. And as everyone knows, there’s something of a tradition in the NHL where everyone panics when your team goes to the Stanley Cup tournament, starting the regular season with the best. Some of that anxiety has bubbled to the surface since the Panthers beat the Bruins in Game 2.

But then came those six fascinating episodes in Sunrise. Make it nine episodes like this and the Bruins can move on to more important things.

(Top photo of Charlie McAvoy and Matthew Tkachuk: Joel Auerbach/Getty Images)