Bruins Coach Bruce Cassidy Remembers Colby Cave

Tragedy struck the hockey world on Saturday. Colby Cave, who was with the Edmonton Oilers, lost his life after he suffered a brain bleed. Cave was put into a medically-induced coma following surgery last week, but sadly never recovered.

Prior to his time with the Oilers organization, Cave was a popular member of the Boston Bruins. He made his NHL debut with the club and scored his first NHL goal with the Bruins. He made a lasting impression on those he interacted with. That includes head coach Bruce Cassidy.

“A very tragic situation,” Cassidy said at the beginning of a virtual town hall on Tuesday. “I wanted to offer, from the Cassidy family and hopefully all of the Bruins family, our deepest condolences to [Cave’s wife] Emily, her family, Colby’s parents Al and Jennifer and Colby’s sister, [Taylor]. He was a terrific young fella.”

Cave and Cassidy crossed paths at two different times. They were together in Boston, but also together in Providence. Cave was just a rookie, while Cassidy was attempting to return to the NHL.

“I had him as a 20-year-old in Providence his first year,” Cassidy continued. “Just a great teammate, good person, hard worker, would do whatever it takes to get to the next level. He was able to accomplish that with us.”

Due to Coronavirus restrictions, Cave’s family and friends could not be by his bedside as he laid in the coma prior to passing away Saturday. In an attempt to hopefully will him through and back to consciousness, Cassidy had some of Cave’s former Bruins teammates record audio messages to be played in his room. This was a reflection of the imprint Cave left on all he crossed paths with.

“Unfortunately, we lost him to Edmonton on waivers [in January 2019], but just a terrific young man and very sad to see him pass away. He’s one of those players that we’ll never forget.”

The Edmonton Oilers announced the creation of the Colby Cave Memorial Fund to help carry on the memory and legacy of Cave. For more information, visit this link.