Tonight the Boston Bruins will host the Buffalo Sabres at 7:30 p.m. ET at the TD Garden. The game will be on NBCSN and can be watched online.
It’s impossible to pretend that this is just another game and in equal measure, it is hard to judge a sporting event as important for Boston just days after the Boston Marathon bombings.
All the same, when the Bruins and Sabres play tonight, they will be trying to bring some joy to a wounded city by doing what they know best.
“In some sense, you feel a bit helpless as far as what you can do after the fact as far as action,” Boston Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference told the Boston Globe. “We’ll do our job and make sure we’re there when people need us and think of anything possible we can do to help.”
“That is why we play: To entertain and bring joy to people’s lives,” Patrice Bergeron added in a CSN New England report.
Bergeron hasn’t played since April 2, but he is very likely to return on Wednesday.
The Bruins will be facing a Sabres team that needs every point they can get. Buffalo got some help on Tuesday when the Philadelphia Flyers beat the eighth place New York Rangers. However, the Sabres are still four points out of a playoff spot with just five games left in their schedule to the Rangers’ six.
Boston can secure its playoff spot by getting at least one point in this contest. They are also in a battle with Montreal for the Northeast Division title.
That’s not what’s on their minds though.
“We represent the city of Boston and we want to make sure we represent them well,” said Bruins coach Claude Julien on Tuesday. He later added, “We don’t expect tomorrow to be the day that everything’s going to be okay. But you’ve got to start somewhere and tomorrow’s a great time for us to go out there and play our hearts out for all the right reasons.”
Probable goaltenders: BOS - Tuukka Rask (17-8-4, 1.99 GAA, .929 SV%) | BUF - Ryan Miller (14-17-5, 2.84 GAA, .913 SV%)
Top scorers: BOS - Brad Marchand (16-17-33, 38 GP) | BUF - Thomas Vanek (16-18-34, 33 GP)
Notable Injuries:
Boston - Forwards: Bergeron (concussion - probable), Marchand (concussion), Marc Savard (concussion)
Buffalo - Forwards: Ville Leino (upper body) Defensemen: Tyler Myers (leg), Alexander Sulzer (lower body)