On Monday, the Boston Bruins went from worrying about coming back home after a couple of losses to fight off Ottawa, to worrying about the victims of the Boston Marathon explosion. On Wednesday, they will attempt to help lead Bostonians back to a life of normal by taking the ice at 7:30 ET on NBC Sports against Buffalo in the first sporting event in the city since the explosion. Ottawa crept to within three points of the Bruins for the fourth spot in the playoffs, which is the final spot to get home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

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Rnk Eastern DIV GP W L OT P
1 Pittsburgh ATL 42 32 10 0 64
2 Montréal NE 42 26 11 5 57
3 Washington SE 43 24 17 2 50
4 Boston NE 41 26 11 4 56
5 Toronto NE 43 24 14 5 53
6 Ottawa NE 42 22 14 6 50
7 NY Islanders ATL 43 22 16 5 49
8 NY Rangers ATL 42 21 17 4 46
9 Winnipeg SE 43 22 19 2 46
10 Buffalo NE 43 18 19 6 42
11 Philadelphia ATL 43 19 21 3 41
12 New Jersey ATL 42 15 17 10 40
13 Tampa Bay SE 43 17 22 4 38
14 Carolina SE 42 17 23 2 36
15 Florida SE 42 13 23 6 32

Cars and even sports reporters faced tight inspections going into the arena throughout the day. With a win, Boston could move into second place in the Eastern Conference, which would give them home ice advantage until the conference final – perhaps against Pittsburgh. The Bruins are currently behind Washington only because the three divisional leaders get the first three spots, so a win for Boston could leapfrog them by making the Bruins first in the loaded Northeast Division.

Six days after the 9/11 attacks, the New York Yankees took the field and rallied the city and the nation. The Yankees eventually made it to the World Series that year before losing in seven games to the Arizona Diamondbacks.