Once a Bruin always a Bruin: Remembering Colby Cave
With the tragic passing of former Boston Bruin Colby Cave, the hockey community has once again amazingly come together. Current and former NHL players, coaches, GM's, and fans have shared their support and condolences. There's truly nothing like the hockey community. Teams and rivalries aside, a hockey player is a hockey player. When one of their own is down everyone comes out to help and support. Many of Cave's former Bruins teammates sent his wife catered meals, groceries, flowers, and gift baskets while he was in the hospital.
Colby Cave was just 25 years old when he passed away on April 11th, 2020 of a brain bleed. Cave signed an entry level contract as an undrafted free agent with the Boston Bruins in April of 2015. While he mainly played with the Providence Bruins (238 games) all his hard work paid off and he played 23 games with the Boston Bruins. He wanted to play at the NHL level and worked hard to get there. He never gave up. He showed his strength, grit, and perseverance. He knew what he wanted and he would put in the work to make sure he got it. Amongst the many kind words and characteristics people are using to talk about Cave: hardworking, genuine, strong, and nice seem to be repeated by many. His current and former teammates, his friends and family, and even fans have nothing but kind words to say about Cave. I myself am also one of those people. I was lucky enough to meet Colby Cave and it is truly a day I will never forget.
December 20th, 2018 Krejci notched his 600th career point and David Pastrnak had a three point game. The Boston Bruins ended a nine game losing streak by beating the Anaheim Ducks 3-1 for the first time since October 31st, 2013. I remember it being a great game; however, what happened after the game is far more memorable. A few of us were taken through the tunnels where we first got to meet Ryan Getzlaf. After the handshakes and small talk we continued down a long hallway where we were told to wait. We could mostly see Ducks players leaving the Garden giving us all a smile or wave as they left the building. Then around the corner came two guys, one in a red Christmas suit the other in a blue one. While I have nothing bad to say about meeting Ryan Donato it was Colby Cave that always stood out to me. When I talked about this day to family and friends, it was always Cave that I spoke about. I truly will never forget the genuine presence and just the overall nice guy he came off as. Colby Cave went around to every single person in that room. Admittedly, there was only about ten of us. But still. He shook everyone's hand or gave them a hug. He acknowledged every single one of us, even thanking us for taking the time to meet him. It felt like he was honored to meet us when it was all of us who were in shock and so happy to meet him. He signed autographs and took pictures with us all, even making small talk with a few of us. I vividly remember him asking my friend and I where we were from and what we did for work. While it was a quick meet, it is one I will never forget.
My heart aches for his entire family. Parent's who lost their son far too young, a twin sister who lost her other half, a young wife who won't even get to celebrate her first wedding anniversary with the love of her life, teammates who will never get to skate with their lineman again, and friends who never got to say goodbye.