So now we have a clue as to why Bruins’ defenseman Hampus Lindholm’s game dropped off so dramatically in the playoffs.

In a communication with the Swedish publication Aftonbladet last week in explaining why he could not represent Sweden in the World Championships, Lindholm revealed that he’d just found out that he’d been playing with a fractured foot “for the past month,” he wrote in a text.

Lindholm blocked a shot in the Bruins’ March 11 win over the Red Wings and did not play in the second half of the weekend back-to-back the next day. He was also given the March 26 game in Carolina off to take care of a nagging injury, coach Jim Montgomery said at the time.

Those were the only two games he missed all season. Whether the fracture occurred in that March 11 game or there was subsequent trauma that caused the break is not clear.

In the first year of an eight-year, $52 million deal, the big Swede enjoyed a breakout season in which he set a career high in points (10-43-53) and lifted the team when it was without Charlie McAvoy to start the season.

But Lindholm was a no-show in the playoffs. While all the Bruins’ defensemen had trouble breaking through the Florida Panthers’ forecheck, Lindholm’s 0-0-0 stat line stood out. There was a tentativeness to his game. How much you can attribute that to the injury and how much to the Panthers is anyone’s guess.

In his final meeting with reporters two days after the record-setting B’s were ousted by the Panthers, Lindholm would not use the foot as an excuse.

“I’d say I was fine,” said Lindholm on May 2. “Everyone has bumps and bruises that time of year. There’s no excuses on that stuff … it’s just that time of year. You try to find ways. We couldn’t really do that this year.”