BEDFORD — You can’t blame the Bruins for being a bit ornery after the turn of events in the last couple of days in this playoff series, and that irritability came across from team representatives who met with reporters before the team flight to Fort Lauderdale for Tuesday’s do-or-die game 5.

In the wake of the decision to let Sam Bennett’s injurious punch to captain Brad Marchand’s head go unpunished and then an atrocious Toronto situation room decision to allow Bennett’s controversial third period goal to stand, GM Don Sweeney did not want to criticize the officials for fear of being fined. He did chastise reporters for even asking questions of the coach about the highly debated decisions.

But the backhand to the wretches of the fourth estate was not really Sweeney’s point. It was that somebody should be answering for these bad calls and it shouldn’t be the aggrieved party. An email from the league explaining the goalie interference decision – or none at all in the case of the punch – doesn’t cut it in the GM’s eyes.

“The overall premise that I have, to be perfectly honest with you, is we should not be asking the coach after the game what they feel about the officiating and what happens. You guys should really be focused on what we didn’t do well enough through the course of the hockey game to win the hockey game,” said Sweeney. “Those questions should be directed at either the director or supervisor of officials, the supervisor of the series and/or the officials. You want full access and transparency? Then put the officials in front of the microphones to answer the questions. They’re the only ones who have the experience to be able to handle whatever interpretation they applied to Rule 69. That’s it. The rest of us? Clearly we challenged it because of our interpretation. So the only ones who can answer that… don’t put out a statement. Just stand in front and answer the questions. It’s as simple as that.”

The NHL does not provide an opportunity for even a pool reporter to question the on-ice officials after the game and, in the case of the goaltender interference decision, it was the situation room in Toronto that made the decision. An email is sent to explain the decision.

In the case of a questionable decision not to fine or suspend a player, the Department of Player Safety does not explain that, only when supplemental discipline is administered.

“Department of Player Safety needs to make the statement on how they interpret that situation. We’ve seen every angle you can possibly imagine. No different than when Brad himself has been called on the carpet and comparables are looked at. That’s their job, their responsibility to protect the players,” said Sweeney.

Have the general managers pushed for that kind of transparency?

“It’s been brought up before, yes,” said Sweeney.

All of that, of course, is noise right now. The fact of the matter is that the Bruins are down 3-1 in their series with the Panthers and, if they don’t play better hockey in Tuesday’s Game 5 at Amerant Bank Arena, their season will be over.

In the last three games in which the Panthers have taken a stranglehold of the series, they have held a better than 2-1 shot advantage (107-50). While Sweeney pointed out that his team is not a high shot-volume team, stressing quality over quantity, and they did have some Grade A chances that didn’t go, they have not made Sergei Bobrovsky work hard enough in this series.

Pucks have to get to the net, said Pat Maroon.

“As a group collectively, we played a good first period. Obviously, we got chances. We’re still not putting pucks enough to the net. Eighteen shots on a goalie throughout three periods is not good enough,” said Maroon. “It seems like right now, we’ve got to focus on tonight, have a good meeting, see what we need to fix and just focus on one shift at a time, one TV timeout to one TV timeout and come together as a group. Listen, we were in this situation last series but we were the ones up 3-1 and you guys saw what happened. I look at it like this. If we win Game 4, we still have to win two games. Unfortunately, we have to win three. But we can’t look ahead. We’ve got to focus on (Game 5).”

Maroon found some irony in the goalie interference decision because he was in Bennett’s shoes earlier this year in Minnesota and the goal was taken off the board. But Maroon tried to focus on the fact that the B’s had a 2-0 lead and didn’t close it out. They sat on their heels when they had the lead, he said. There are too many one-and-dones, not enough shots from up top or traffic in front.

When asked if Bennett should have dropped the gloves with him when he challenged the Panther late in the first period, Maroon got defensive. He clearly wants to have a bigger affect on this series but he can’t do anything stupid. The Panthers have torched the B’s on the power play.

“I’m damned if I do and I’m damned if I don’t,” said Maroon. “I’m sure everyone’s wondering why I haven’t done anything. I’ll sit here and say it’s not like I haven’t tried or I don’t want to do anything. I love my captain, I love the guys. But trust me, it’s a tough business and everyone’s looking at me to do something. Unfortunately, I am trying. But you can’t really focus on that. It’s over, it’s done with. We have to focus on winning a hockey game.”

When asked about it again, the anger in his voice rose.

“Listen, I’m trying. I don’t know what else you guys want me to do. It’s frustrating that you guys are trying to do a narrative now for (expletive) nothing, to be honest. We’ve got to win a (expletive) hockey game. That’s what it comes down to,” said Maroon. “What happened, we’ve got to turn the page, we’ve got to find a way. You can sit here and say I’m not doing my job. Maybe I’m not. But like I said before, I’m damned if I do and I’m damned if I don’t. And I don’t want to put my team in jeopardy. I don’t want to take a suspension. I don’t want put my team on a penalty kill. I’m doing everything I can. So we can sit here and say I’m not. And maybe I’m not. But I talked to my captain, I talked to the guys in the locker room. They know and they know I care and that’s the most important thing.”

The season is on the brink. Emotions are hot and scattered. And the B’s need to channel it all to the right place and produce one win to get the series back home. …

Loose pucks

Sweeney said that Marchand skated on Monday and traveled with the team to Florida. But his status is uncertain, and it sounded like he might not be available for Game 5

“Guys have to give him a chance,” said Sweeney. …

While a couple of views of the Bennett punch had been out in the public realm since Friday night, the definitive view was shown on TNT’s pregame show before Sunday’s Game 4. A source told us that a TNT camera did not pick it up and the network was not aware of it until Sunday. Sweeney said that the B’s did not have that angle, either.

“We did not get that until later on. If we had had it earlier, we would have passed it along but clearly somebody did and they passed it along. We felt that way all along but that was more definitive to what transpired,” said Sweeney.

Asked if he knew if the league had the view when it made the decision, Sweeney said “I can’t speak for the league.”…

With the Providence Bruins season over, goalie Brandon Bussi and forwards Jayson Megna and Patrick Brown were brought up.