Joe Exotic Fondly Remembers Former Teammate Colby Cave

[Joe Exotic 32]

As a hockey dad, Joe Hutzal felt for the Edmonton Oilers back on Dec. 6 as they prepared to clash with the Los Angeles Kings.

Hutzal's son Jacob and the rest of the Stony Plain Atom 2 Predators had the honour of standing on the Edmonton bench during the pre-game warm-up.

 

 

'"In a way, I felt like the kids were slightly intruding on the players' regular routine," Hutzal says. "They were getting into game mode."

Undeterred, a minor-league journeyman named Colby Cave — wearing No. 12 for the Oilers — leaned over the boards and took time to chat with the enraptured Predators. Hutzal snapped a photo of a moment his son, and his teammates, will never forget.

 

 

Cave died on Saturday at Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital. He was 25.

The Edmonton Oilers forward underwent emergency surgery on Tuesday to remove a colloid cyst that caused bleeding on the brain.

 

The picture of Cave and the Stony Plain Predators is just one illuminating snapshot of a young man known as much for his character as his hockey prowess.

"To see a guy, a call-up running out of chances to stick in the league, going out of his way to talk with them struck a chord with me," Hutzal says. "There would have been so many other things on his mind, but he felt it was important to spend some time with the kids regardless of his status on the team."

 

The hockey world, already stunned by the sudden shutdown necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, hoped and prayed for a better outcome when news broke last week that Cave was in a medically induced coma.

The former Swift Current Broncos captain never woke up. 

 

Outpouring of grief from VHL players

Many Philadelphia Reapers took to social media to give their sympathy. Joe Exotic played with Colby in the AHL last year and had nothing but positive things to say.  "It just doesn't make any sense," Joe wrote on Instagram. "Heavy, heavy heart today as I try to wrap my head around this.

"You were an amazing person and always brought so much energy and positivity into the room and in people's lives."

[Big Mac 310]

I'm gonna be honest I don’t think you should’ve made this, for reason that mainly you’re gaining tpe over this man's death. Whether you see it that way or not.