TAMPA, FLA. - The names scrawled on the hard white plastic that connects boot to blade of Kevin Hayes skates are barely discernible. It's a wonder they can be made out at all, given the wear and sticks and pucks they've seen in a regular season that has turned into Round 3 of the NHL playoffs.
Not that it matters.
Hayes, the big New York Rangers forward who is having an exceptional rookie season, didn't write the names on his skates for the benefit of you or I or anybody else. He put them there at the beginning of the season because he's a strong and proud son of Boston, specifically the neighbourhood of Dorchester, and they are the names of innocent victims in the bombings that took place Marathon Monday, April 15, 2013, killing three and injuring 264 others.