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Bruins, Penguins cancel practices during Boston lockdown; prepare charity auction for game

With the city of Boston in an unprecedented lockdown on Friday morning, during an ongoing manhunt for a suspected Boston Marathon bomber, the Bruins and the Pittsburgh Penguins announced their morning skates had been cancelled.

Furthermore, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the Penguins have been advised not to leave their hotel. The Bruins and Penguins are currently scheduled to play at 7 p.m. at TD Garden on Friday night.

If the game is played as scheduled, it will feature a fundraising component. From the Bruins:

The Boston Bruins announced today, April 18, that the Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins will auction off their game-worn jerseys, adorned with unique patches, from their game on Friday, April 19, to support those affected by the recent tragedy at the Boston Marathon.

The Bruins will be wearing a “Boston Strong” blue and yellow ribbon patch, while the Penguins will take to the ice wearing a “617” patch. The game-worn sweaters from both teams’ full rosters will then be auctioned off by their respective team foundations with all proceeds being donated to “The One Fund Boston” (OneFundBoston.org), whose purpose is to raise money to help those families most affected by the events at the Boston Marathon.

In addition to the jerseys being auctioned off, additional Bruins sweaters will be raffled off at the Bruins/Panthers game on Sunday, April 21 and the Bruins/Lightning game on Thursday, April 25 at the Bruins Foundation table located at Level 4 Loge 4 to support The One Fund Boston.

One lucky winner will be selected to receive the game worn jerseys of both Jaromir Jagr of the Boston Bruins and Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Raffle tickets cost $5.00 each and can be purchased at www.nhlalumniraffles.org.

Sweaters will also be available for auction at NHL Auctions (auctions.nhl.com) and will be available for bidding starting on Monday, April 22 through Friday, May 3. All proceeds for the NHL Auctions with the Bruins jerseys will go to The One Fund Boston.

In addition to the jersey auction, ‘Boston Strong’ Reebok t-shirts will be available for purchase for $26, beginning Friday evening at the Bruins Pro-Shop and select retail locations inside the TD Garden. 100% of the proceeds of the “Boston Strong” t-shirts will be donated to The One Fund Boston

Obviously, an NHL game is way down the list of important things at the moment for Boston. But we’ll keep you informed on the status of the Pens and Bruins as game time approaches.

UPDATE: One more bit of fallout, as the Bruins postponed the sale of their playoff tickets, which was scheduled to launch on Friday morning.