The bad news appeared to outweigh the good news at Saturday’s practice at Warrior Ice Arena.

Sure, the Bruins saw four of their injured players back on the ice for a full skate — the return of Vezina favorite Linus Ullmark was the big news on that front — but it was also an on-ice session that came without captain Patrice Bergeron present, and a skate that Brad Marchand failed to finish.

That’s not what anybody wants to read this time of year.

But like he has for what feels like a month now, Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery did his part to put any panic to bed when speaking with reporters after the spirited skate ahead of Monday’s Game 1.

• “We’re just giving [Bergeron] extra rest,” Montgomery said following practice. “He’s had a long year. Same thing with [Marchand]. Marchy wanted to give it a try today, and he did feel a little bit of soreness, so I said get off the ice.

  “And we knew it was going to be a hard practice, so we were very cautious.”

  The ‘hard’ part of this practice came with a scrimmage in the second half of practice. That was done mainly to test the conditioning of center David Krejci (out since Apr. 1), winger Nick Foligno (out since Feb. 28), and defenseman Derek Forbort (out since Mar. 16), all of whom were in regular jerseys for this practice.

  In addition to Bergeron and Marchand, the Bruins also held Matt Grzelcyk out of the scrimmage portion of Saturday’s practice, noting that he was “a little sore.”

• 

  Mar 9, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins left wing Brad Marchand (63) celebrates with center Patrice Bergeron (37) after scoring a goal against the Edmonton Oilers during the first period at the TD Garden. (Brian Fluharty/USA TODAY Sports)

• Precautionary has been the name of the game for Montgomery and the Bruins really since the team clinched their playoff berth. The levels of what you would call ‘precautionary’ player management have only gone up since then, too, be it because of the Bruins’ record-breaking success and a schedule that got condensed beyond anything even resembling a balanced one, with the Bruins at one point playing 20 games in 35 days.

  Montgomery seemed to indicate as much on Saturday, too.

  “We’re happy with our health right now,” Montgomery said. “You know, considering the long year and we have some forwards that are older. Our D is relatively young and really good, but, you know, we have some forwards [that are older]. It’s why we took the precautionary [approach] with us having a couple of days rest here, not to give No. 37 [too much work] and I didn’t want No. 63 out there, so I’m glad he got off [the ice].”

• 

  TAMPA, FLORIDA – JANUARY 26: Patrice Bergeron #37 of the Boston Bruins faces off during a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on January 26, 2023 in Tampa, Florida. (Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images )

• Now whether you fully believe that or not is up to you.

  The Bruins acknowledged that Bergeron suffered an upper-body injury in Thursday’s regular season finale in Montreal. He played the first period of play, but was ruled out just before the start of the second period. In addition to the upper-body injury, the Bruins noted the ‘precautionary’ nature of that decision in their official update.

  Speaking after the game, Montgomery noted that Bergeron wanted to return to action. He also touched on the specifics of the injury — and by that I mean as specific as you’ll get this time of year — on Saturday.

  “Yeah, it is,” Montgomery said when asked if this Bergeron injury is of the ‘nagging’ nature opposed to something new that’s developed. “It’s something that he’s dealt with before. He knows how to deal with it.”

• 

  Oct 27, 2022; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron (37) congratulates left wing Brad Marchand (63) after he scored against the Detroit Red Wings during the third period at TD Garden. (Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports)

• For doubters out there, what’s interesting is that the Bruins decided to put Pavel Zacha up between Marchand and Jake DeBrusk on Boston’s top line for this Bergeron-less practice. That kept Tyler Bertuzzi and David Pastrnak as Boston’s second-line wings, but with Krejci between them. That also kept the Bruins without a look at their projected third line with Bertuzzi skating on the right side of the Taylor Hall and Charlie Coyle combination.

  That’s quite a bit of moving around for a player you’re just resting.

  Now, the obvious flip side to that is that the Bruins will always use any excuse to get a look at everything they can, and that there’s enough chemistry in that top six for the Bruins to try anything for just a day without skipping a beat when it comes to game action. (A Saturday practice in April is hardly what you’d consider ‘make or break’ for the Zacha-Krejci-Pastrnak chemistry to remain intact.)

  And by now it feels obvious that Bergeron can and will play through just about everything. Same for Marchand. Their 2022 playoffs alone served as just the latest chapter of the confirmation of as much, with Bergeron playing through an elbow injury while Marchand played without hips. Both were still unbelievably impactful at less than 100 percent.

  With that in mind, their status for Monday’s Game 1 doesn’t feel to be in much doubt.

  At least not to the man who is, y’know, building the lineup for Game 1.

  Which, this time of year, seems to say everything.

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