The Panthers had a pretty good idea of what was coming in Friday night’s Game 2 at the Garden: A desperate Rangers physical onslaught that might possibly include their 6-foot-8½ rough-and-tumble rookie Matt Rempe on the ice for the first time in the series.

Rempe was a healthy scratch for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final, a 3-0 Rangers loss on Wednesday night in which they lacked the urgency and physicality that are positively required for survival at this time of year.

Despite many calls for Rempe to be active in Game 2, Rangers coach Peter Laviolette, on Friday after his team’s morning skate, was coy about his lineup — as he always is.

At the Garden, where the Panthers conducted their morning skate, they reacted to Rempe potentially being inserted into the lineup with what amounted to shrugged shoulders.

The Cats weren’t thumping their collective chests saying, “Bring it on,’’ but their attitude was close to that — even though the Rangers’ record with Rempe in the lineup was 20-3-1 entering Friday night.

Asked before the game what Rempe might bring to the series if he’s active, Panthers center Kevin Stenlund said, “Hits.’’

“But it doesn’t matter to us if he’s in there or not if they change their lineup; we’ve just got to focus on our group,’’ Stenlund said.

“If they want to switch up the lineup, obviously (Rempe) brings energy to them,’’ Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour said. “He brings physicality. He’s a big player who gets on the forecheck and plays physical.

“Obviously, if he’s in the lineup it’s clear what their mindset is — to get to the body,’’ Montour went on. “If he’s in, he’s in. If he’s not, he’s not. It’s not going to affect us and what our game plan is. We’re focused on what we’ve got in here.’’

Panthers center Carter Verhaeghe, one of the Florida goal scorers on Wednesday, said he knows the exact desired affect the Rangers would be seeking with Rempe on the ice.

“The crowd certainly loves him,’’ Verhaeghe said. “He’s a big, physical player. You’ve got to be aware of him when he’s on the ice. But other than that, we’re going to play our game. We’re going to continue to be physical, continue to be hard.

“Whatever players they have in their lineup, it’s not going to change our game.’’

Panthers coach Paul Maurice and his players shrugged off the crunching hit against the boards Florida defenseman Nico Mikkola laid on Rangers forward Filip Chytil with fewer than five seconds remaining in Wednesday night’s game.

In fact, they were borderline defiant in defending Mikkola for the needless hit.

“It’s clean,’’ Maurice said matter-of-factly. “There was nothing. It was clean. (Chytil) had the puck. That’s going to happen. He could have dumped the puck and that (hit) wouldn’t have happened. I don’t know why you would keep the puck there.

“If we have the puck, we’re going to get hit. If they have the puck, they’re going to get hit. It’s the conference finals. The game’s over when it’s over.’’

Asked if he expected a response from the Rangers in Game 2 for the Mikkola hit, Verhaeghe said, “(Chytil) is trying to score a goal in a 3-0 game with five seconds left. It’s as clean of a hit as I’ve seen. I don’t think so.’’

Montour said, “I think if there was going to be a response it would probably have been right then. Maybe they try to find an area in the game where they can get a lick on him, but if there was going to be something, it would have been (Wednesday).

“The game was still playing and we wanted to make a hard play to finish the game. It is what it is.’’

Stenlund summed up the Panthers expectations for Game 2 this way: “I’m sure they’re going to hit and we’re going to hit, so it’s going to be a fun game.’’

Maurice said he knew exactly what to expect — based on history.

“The team that just lost Game 1 has an advantage in Game 2,’’ he said. “When we look at our first series, we won Game 1 with Tampa (3-2) and I thought Tampa played its best game in Game 2 even though we won in overtime (3-2). And the opposite happened in the Boston series. We got clubbed 5-1 in Game 1 and came back and played probably our best game of that series in Game 2 (a 6-1 win).

“So, (the Rangers) have that emotional advantage,’’ Maurice added. “It’s one game, and it was 1-0 with three minutes left. So, this is going to be a tight, very probably long, series and it’s going to be a grinder. It’s going to be fast at times and it’ll be heavy on the walls at times. But they have the emotional advantage coming into (Friday’s game). We’ve got to find a different way to get ours.’’