SUNRISE — To understand how the Florida Panthers felt about the liberties the Edmonton Oilers were taking, particularly against their captain, you had to imagine the steam emanating from them.

You had to imagine it, because the Panthers refused to say it.

The Panthers had just beaten the Oilers 4-1 to take a 2-0 lead in the Stanley Cup Final, but if you had stumbled into coach Paul Maurice’s postgame news conference, you might have thought you were listening to losing coach Kris Knoblauch instead.

Maurice couldn’t have been biting his tongue any harder.

More: Florida Panthers seize control of series and are heavy favorites now for Stanley Cup | Schad

Never was that more evident than on Question No. 3 on Leon Draisaitl’s elbow to the face that knocked Aleksander Barkov out of the game — and could affect his availability for Thursday’s Game 3. The reporter prefaced his question by saying it appeared Maurice was holding back. He then asked what Maurice’s “feelings” were on the hit.

“This isn’t the Oprah Winfrey Show,” Maurice said. “My feelings don’t matter. OK?”

Maybe Maurice’s feelings don’t matter, but how Barkov is feeling does. He did not return to the game. Although Maurice didn’t have an update on his captain’s condition, the severity still was clear.

“There was 9:28 on the clock, I believe. In a 2-1 game,” Maurice said, speaking softly, deliberately. “I’m not holding him.”

Meaning: If Barkov were in any condition to return, he would have.

Meanwhile, the more players refused to talk about the hit, the more you became convinced that 1) They’d agreed to keep their anger within and 2) They feel they can take their wrath out on the ice as the series goes on.

And maybe they’re right. With Draisaitl in the box for two minutes, the Panthers finally broke through on the power play as Evan Rodrigues scored his second of the game to give Florida breathing room at 3-1.

“We rallied,” Rodrigues said. “We did what we had to do to win the game. Yeah, you never want to see your captain go down, but I thought everyone did a great job focusing on getting the job done.”

The Panthers have stood up for each other all season. A forward buzzes around Sergei Bobrovsky’s net, maybe takes a poke after Bobrovsky covers the puck? There was no doubt what was coming next: dropped gloves.

Even though the Panthers don’t allow themselves to be bullied, either out of frustration or a lack of other ideas, the Oilers thought they needed brute force Monday night. Must have been that, or they took the Panthers' pregame video -- which includes a rendition of "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," a little too seriously.

Midway through the first period, Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen lay sprawled on the ice, face down, after Warren Foegele extended his left knee to clip Luostarinen’s left leg. As officials handed Foegele a game misconduct for kneeing, the Panthers sweated out whether Luostarinen had been dealt a bad hand for the second consecutive postseason. A broken leg in the conference final last year kept him out of the Stanley Cup Final.

Luostarinen did return, but not before the Panthers wasted a five-minute power play opportunity when Oliver Ekman-Larsson landed in the box for tripping. Worse, Edmonton scored its first goal of the series on the ensuing four-on-four. So outside of Anton Lundell going after Foegele, the Panthers were going to have to wait for revenge.

“Just keep pushing and there’s no comments on the situation,” Vladimir Tarasenko said when asked about the hit on Barkov.

Matthew Tkachuck: “I have no response or comment on that.”

Knoblauch said he didn’t see a significant difference between Foegele’s hit and one delivered by Sam Bennett on Evan Bouchard.

“You’re going to hit a guy and then the guy moves out of the way, it’s pretty tough to change where your feet are,” Knoblauch said. “And you know my opinion. And their opinion may be a lot different, but I didn’t see very much difference in those two plays. I see Bouchard got up right away. Their guy didn’t get up right away.”

No, but the Panthers as a whole got up.

They just weren’t in the mood to speak up.

Dolphins reporter Hal Habib can be reached at  hhabib@pbpost.com. Follow him on social media @gunnerhal. Click here to subscribe.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida Panthers' actions, not words, get revenge vs. Oilers