It’s rare that we don’t lead with news about the Tampa Bay Lightning, but yesterday marked a pretty important event, and we’d be remiss not to point it out. In honor of the 60th anniversary of Willie O’Ree’s first NHL game, the Mayor of Boston declared January 18, 2018 to be Willie O’Ree Day. (The result of his first game and the result of the Boston-Montreal game in which he was honored had the same result, incidentally — a Bruins victory.)
The Tampa Bay Lightning no longer have a non-white player in the lineup with JT Brown getting picked up on waivers by the Anaheim Ducks, and time will tell if Mathieu Joseph or Daniel Walcott earn NHL berths (thank you for being diverse, Syracuse!