Tonight was Rick Middleton Night at TD Garden, and the number-retiring celebration pushed the start back an hour. There’s always the fear that the adjusted start times in these situations, the extra time waiting around in the locker room, will mess up the players’ routine and cause sluggishness that can sink a team.
Neither the Islanders nor the Bruins showed lasting effects of the delay, but the game was a low-scoring affair nonetheless. In the end, the team that played slightly better came away with the win during the coin flip, because That’s Hockey.