Reading through the game notes, a few things immediately struck my eye. First, with Ben Bishop, Ryan Callahan, Cedric Paquette, Brayden Point, Steven Stamkos, and Vladislav Namestnikov out with injuries, the Bolts have lost a little over one player’s whole season (87 games) of man hours.
Despite that, and despite the team’s overtime loss to the Leafs tonight, the team is clinging valiantly to 4th place. During the anthem, as the camera panned past Brian Boyle’s face and he huffed out a tired breath, his expression made it clear that this has been a hard, hard season for the players as well as the fans.