For most of us, professional sports are an escape from the mundane routine of our lives.

Sports let us become the wild animals we are inside, allow us to rant and rave about changes that need to be made in order for us to weep like a baby when your favorite team wins the championship, and let you root for something -- be it an idea, an attitude, or team -- that’s larger than you. Sports are also one of the many things that make the City of Boston such an amazing place to live.

In this city, being a sports fan means more than putting on a shirt or cap and heading to a playoff game when your team makes it. In this city, it’s an obsession. It’s often the driving force of that person’s day, otherwise known as the difference between screaming at the kid behind the Dunkin’ Donuts counter for forgetting your sugar or tipping him an extra dollar, and it’s something everyone holds near and dear to the collective hearts that keep this city hungry for more. In Boston, I don’t know how else to describe it other than assuring you that it’s just different. It’s more than just a game. It’s a way of life. It’s a passion.

On Monday, that passion turned to horror, as a heinous act of terror against our city left us running from the Boston Marathon, a staple of springtime in the Hub. The finish line -- a fixture of 26.2-mile triumph and accomplishment for residents of the Commonwealth and far beyond -- was turned to a crime scene. The victims, nearly 200 injured and three dead, including an 8-year-old boy from Dorchester who just last week attended a Bruins vs. Islanders game, were like all of us. Their love of sports knew no bounds, and their desire to be involved in this city’s amazing sports scene was clear.

This city, while fractured beyond the blast-scene at the finish line, had to recover. Uniting as one, rebounding the only way they know how, Wednesday night at the Garden brought forth a chance for New Englanders to scream their fiery passion back in the face of their attackers. It was a return to normalcy -- as normal as life can get in times like these -- for 17,565 and change as they made their way into a security-bolstered TD Garden for the city’s first sporting event since Monday’s tragedy.

Pins, posters, and tributes said it all -- “Boston Strong.” A Cam Neely shirt with “Martin Richard” over Neely’s name hung on the Bobby Orr statue said more than a blog ever could. It united a crowd more than any politician’s speech could. It showed the world that this is Boston, and that Boston isn’t a city that’ll be divided apart by violent attempts to disrupt what’s been the way of life in these parts since before our grandfathers were around.

Tonight, Boston made a statement; Its fans looked fear in the face and said, “Forget you, this is Boston, and we’re going to be even louder.”

The night began with a touching moment of silence, a video tribute to the Boston Marathon’s first responders, a singalong to Rene Rancourt’s rendition of the National Anthem, and then it all hit. “We Are Boston,” the crowd sang.

It was a chant that went beyond the realm of the Black-and-Gold.

It wasn’t a cheer for the team on the ice, it was an instead a cheer for the city they’ve come to know as home.

In an energy-packed Garden, the results came when the Bruins’ Danny Paille opened the scoring up, and were bolstered by a late-period goal from Chris Kelly in the middle-frame, but ultimately fell short when the Bruins allowed a power-play goal with just 26.6 seconds to go in the third, and later fell in the shootout when Drew Stafford secured the extra point for the Buffalo Sabres in the bottom of the third round.

But while the scoreboard indicated a different story, tonight was far from a loss for Boston.

Rallying around a tragic event, the fans in this building represented this city with the utmost class, respect, and pride that’s become common. They were able to take their minds off the nightmare known as the local news, even if just for a few hours, and turn their energy towards repumping this city full of the blood its been driven on for decades now.

They were, in a phrase, Boston Strong.

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