Rene Rancourt took his usual place at center ice before the Boston Bruins’ matchup against the New York Islanders on Thursday night at TD Garden, but he didn’t perform his usual song.
Instead, Rancourt started by singing “O Canada,” the Canadian national anthem, to honor those affected by Wednesday’s shooting at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, where a gunman opened fire on two soldiers, killing one and injuring three others. The gunman also fired shots in Canada’s Parliament building before being shot and killed by sergeant-at-arms Kevin Vickers.
For Bruins head coach Claude Julien, the tragedy was personal.
“Well that is home, so it did hit home,” Julien told reporters Thursday. “Ottawa is home for me, so I spent a good portion of the afternoon looking up at the CNN station and trying to find out as much as I could. It’s unfortunate.”
However, Julien believes the NHL will come together around the unfortunate event.
“I would imagine it will,” Julien said. “Every city rallies around its own city, and I’ve talked to a few people, including my family, that’s still back. My parents and brothers and sisters, it’s affected them. Even if they weren’t around that area, it affected them. It affects the whole city, like the (Boston Marathon) bombing affected us here.”
