from Shira Springer of the Boston Globe,

Wednesday night’s game was the first Boston professional sports event since the marathon bombings. While some fans expressed hesitancy about attending, it was a loud, enthusiastic crowd primed for an emotional night. And they got that before the pick was dropped. A slideshow projected images of hope and tragedy from the marathon finish, then Rene Rancourt started the national anthem. Barely into the song, he let the crowd take over and finish a moving a cappella rendition.

“It’s not your normal game,” said Jeff Slater of Norwell. “This is more than hockey tonight. The hockey game is somewhat secondary to 18,000 people who are saying, ‘We’re not afraid of who did this. We stand united.’ If 9/11 never happened, maybe I’d feel differently. But we’ve seen the healing power of sports. We have seen what our teams can do for our community.”

Slater brought his 13-year-old son, Patrick, to the game because he knew it would be special. That said, he was somewhat worried about having his son there, but only because of the potential extra security hassles. But to fans’ credit, it appeared they came early enough to avoid any major bottlenecks or lengthy delays at security checkpoints.

read on and if you missed the tribute and National Anthem, you can watch them here...