The moving mixture of love, respect and sorrow shown for former Bruins forward Colby Cave was undeniable in his home province of Saskatchewan on Monday as friends, fans and an entire community movingly paid their respects to his memory.
In an amazing show of how much the young man meant to his community, hundreds of cars and countless onlookers lined up for roughly 10 miles alongside Route 16 in North Battleford to show their support for the Cave family as they passed by on their way back home from Toronto.
The 25-year-old Cave passed away in Toronto over the weekend after being placed in a medically-induced coma following a brain bleed that occurred last week due to a colloid cyst in his brain.
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The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Battleford Fire Department led the Cave family home from the airport as onlookers waved and showed their support, and also amazingly did it in a way that also safely practiced social distancing amidst the coronavirus outbreak all over North America.
Cave leaves a legacy as a hard-working, polite and well-liked young man who showed leadership qualities at a young age, and also managed to push his way to his NHL dream by virtue of both his talent and by doing things the right way.
Cave spent parts of five seasons with the Bruins after signing as an undrafted center out of the WHL and finished with a goal and five points in 23 games in Boston before spending the last two seasons in the Edmonton Oilers organization.
The loss of Cave hit close to home for everybody across the hockey community, whether it was somebody close to him like Jake DeBrusk who had played with Cave both in juniors with the Swift Current Broncos and in the Bruins organization, or scores of opposing players who knew Cave only by the honest way the hard-working center approached the game.
Boston Bruins
Cave made a deep impression on all his Bruins teammates that 23-year-old defenseman Brandon Carlo referenced during his Monday afternoon Zoom conference call with the B’s media while paying respect to his fallen former teammate.
“It has been quite devastating to a lot of us. I’d like to say first and foremost that I’m wishing his family the best during this tragic time,” said Carlo. “He was obviously one of the guys that when I first started coming to development camps, I really looked up to him in a way.
“He had that leadership aspect and that contagious smile that made me feel comfortable at the rink from Day One. He will be missed a lot. I want to give my best to Emily and the Cave family.”