Patrice Bergeron returned to Bruins practice on Tuesday

BOSTON -- Patrice Bergeron practiced with his Bruins teammates on Tuesday as he inches closer to a return to action.

Bergeron hasn't played in Boston's first-round playoff series against the Florida Panthers because of a lingering upper-body injury. He skated on his own ahead of the team's practices last week, but was back on the ice with his teammates on Tuesday.

He skated in a normal sweater and not a no-contact one, which is a good indication that Bergeron could make his return for Wednesday night's Game 5 against Florida.

"Today was a good day. We'll see how I feel tomorrow," Bergeron said after the session. "I'm not anticipating any setbacks so, so far so good."

The Bruins have said that if Bergeron is cleared to play Wednesday night, he'll be in the lineup for Game 5. They are not going to mess with the hockey gods and try to get Bergeron a few more days of rest for whatever lies ahead.

Bergeron skated on Boston's top line Tuesday morning, centering David Pastrnak and Tyler Bertuzzi. Brad Marchand, one of Bergeron's usual line mates on Boston's top line, was still on the third line with Charlie Coyle and Nick Foligno.

Tuesday is the first time that Bergeron has practiced since the end of the regular season. He left Boston's regular-season finale on April 13 in Montreal in the first period, and hasn't played in a game since.

"You want to be out there with the boys and battle and compete. You go through a full season and work hard  to get to this point, so you obviously want to get out there. It is frustrating," he admitted. "But that being said, now we're here and the boys have done a great job."

The Bruins haven't missed their captain too much, taking a 3-1 lead against the Panthers. Boston can win the series and move on the the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with a win over Florida Wednesday night at TD Garden.

"The fourth one is the toughest," said Bergeron. "You know you're going to get their best and they're obviously a great team. We know they're not going to give up and give us the game. We have our work cut out for ourselves and we have to make sure we're staying on our toes and keep being hunters."

The team is not as optimistic about fellow centerman David Krejci, who is also dealing with a an upper-body injury. Krejci has missed the last two games and did not practice on Wednesday, though he did skate on his own ahead of the session.