Claude Julien, Chris Kelly and former Bruin Johnny Boychuk are three proud Canadians. They are also three people who have dealt with their share of off-ice adversity before.

Kelly, Julien, Boychuk and the rest of the Black and Gold witnessed first hand the tragic Boston Marathon Bombings on Patriots Day, 2013. They were also in the city when a 5-alarm fire took the lives of several firefighters in the Back Bay this past spring.

As guys who are looked up to in times of adversity, that tragedy hit home. On Wednesday, another unfortunate event took center stage when a shooter opened fire in Canada’s capital. The entire country was on edge as they viewed the occurring events on CBC, CTV and other Canadian media outlets. To no surprise, it forced the Maple Leafs and Senators to postpone their scheduled contest.

A country was in shock, and, to no surprise, the tragedy in Ottawa hit home for Boychuk, Julien and Kelly.

“Ottawa is home for me, so I spent a good portion of the afternoon looking up at the CNN station and trying to find out as much as I could,” Julien said about the events. “It’s unfortunate. It just goes to show you that these tragedies don’t just happen in the U.S. of A, but also in other countries and there’s other countries in Europe that have been faced with that. It’s unfortunate, but this is the life that we’re facing right now and these are things that we should all be aware that is out there and we have to be vigilant and we have to be on our toes and pay attention to what’s around us.”

As Ottawa prepares to recover, the Senators have a similar circumstance to the 2013 Bruins. They have a chance to bring the city together to heal its wounds and provide a distraction from the ongoing events.

“Every city rallies around it’s own city and I’ve talked to a few people including my family that’s still back. My parents, my brothers and my sisters, it’s affected them. It affects the whole city like the bombings affected us here,” Julien said. “They’ll have to get used to it in a way that’s reality unfortunately, and it’s happening. Ottawa is pretty, [and] Canada is a laid back country that tries to continue to be laid back. But it’s also a country that’s supported the U.S. in some of its decision[s] and more than likely those are the consequences that it faces because of that.”

“It’s definitely messed up, and you’re always thinking about what happened here too,” Boychuk added. “You just feel for the people that it’s happening to and where you’re from.”

The good thing about this is Ottawa is not alone in trying to get back to reality. The entire country of Canada will be itching to help the nations capital get back to reality.

There’s also help from the United States, too, as evident with the chilling rendition of the Canadian National Anthem during the Penguins-Flyers game Wednesday night.

“It affects everyone, which is, sad,” said Kelly, who spent seven seasons with the Senators. “Unfortunately you see these things happening more and more and it affects us all. So we have to be a part of the healing process.”

Boston was once on the receiving end of the healing process. The city will give back tonight when they open with a moment of silence before Rene Rancourt performs ‘O’Canada’.