GENE'S BLOG: Praying for Colby plus more mailbag

Hope everyone is safe and sound and made it through another week of working at home, at the office or both. You might be considered lucky to be working at all considering the COVID-19 crush on the economy. However, you can't work if you can't live and that is our primary purpose right now.
With the coronavirus capturing the world's attention, you sometimes forget there are people who fall ill or might be hospitalized and it has nothing to do with this pandemic. Colby Cave is one of those people.
Shocking news revealed about the Oilers and Bakersfield Condors forward on Tuesday.
First he had been placed in a medically-induced coma and admitted to a Toronto hospital after suffering a brain bleed overnight. Then an update that he was out of emergency surgery. Doctors removed a colloid cyst that was causing pressure on his brain. He remains in a medically-induced coma at Sunnybrook Hospital.
Wow, just hard to believe a 25-year-old pro athlete would be stricken with such a moment that threatens to take him away. It is an extremely difficult time for the entire Cave family and his wife Emily. Colby is a great kid. Big smile, engaging personality, friendly handshake and a person who achieved success the old-fashioned way... he earned it.
An undrafted player who first was a Boston Bruin and then an Edmonton Oiler. Riding the fine line between the NHL and AHL, he did what he had to in order to win, irrelevant of what team or league he was playing in.

I remember chatting with him after his goal against Pittsburgh. You know, the highlight-reel one you must have seen a few times. With McDavid, Draisaitl, Crosby and Malkin all on the ice, it was a prairie boy from the Battlefords who scored a beauty. He was so proud of the call-up, flying across the country to meet up with the Oilers and then providing such a memorable marker in a big win.
We are praying for Colby and thinking of him, his wife Emily and his family through the most difficult of times.
While we keep the young forward top of mind, I did still want to get to a few of your questions submitted over the past week.
@hockeyhunka on Twitter asks... What's the meal protocol for players and media when flying to or from games? Any specific requests?
Brenda, great question. As the old saying goes, we are what we eat. The players have, with help, specified their diets to what makes them run on the best food possible for optimum results. At home, players are provided with breakfast, lunch and post-game dinner on games days at Rogers Place.
On the road, the setup is similar on game days. The difference is after a game the players usually hop on a plane to fly to the next city. They aren't receiving pretzels and peanuts. It's like an air-bound first-class restaurant with everything they need to fuel up for the next day.
I remember in Pittsburgh this season bumping into Leon on the elevator. We discussed what he had done on a day off and he guiltily expressed having indulged in one of those over-the-top milkshakes we all love that likely has a thousand or more calories in it. He just kind of shook his head like, "I shouldn't have had that, but boy did it ever taste good." I was thinking, "You will have worked that off easily by tomorrow."
I was right. Leon played 23 and a half minutes and scored the OT winner against the Penguins that Saturday afternoon.
Again, just a glimpse into the minds and commitment athletes make including what they eat.
@car_lybear on Twitter asks... do you have any pets?
What a paws-itive question! Really good one to ask. We have a dog. He's eight and a half years old. He's a mix but mostly a black lab. We've had him since Christmas of 2011.
My oldest son really wanted a dog. We went to the Edmonton Humane Society. We looked at a few dogs and my kids really liked one named Patrick. He was just a puppy then. He had "happy tail' from hitting it so hard against the wall. It was bandaged up. He also had a cone on his head so he wouldn't bite at his bandaged tail.
We saw him and we left. They went home and I went directly on the road. I wasn't sold on having a pet quite yet. Two days later, I called home and I heard a dog barking. I asked what was going on and my wife politely said I got out-voted four to one by her and the kids. They chose Patrick.
You see it with Connor, Leon, Darnell and many other players with their dogs and how important they are in their lives. You truly can't understand it until you have one of your own.
Here's a photo of Patrick looking forward to spring!

Trevor Pardi on Facebook asks... Gene, how did your career get started? And where are you originally from?
I got my career started almost 40 years ago or at least the idea for it. I still remember as a 15-year0old trying out for the U-16 provincial soccer team. We had tryouts at Commonwealth Stadium and I got cut. At that point, I realized I wasn't going to make it in soccer. I thought if I can't play sports for a living, maybe I can cover them.
I had always been fascinated with sports. Playing them and just as equally watching them. I remember my dad (an Italian immigrant) often saying with a think accent, "That's all you do is play sports and watch a sports."
He was right, but I was determined to keep sports a part of my life and make it a part of my work. Through high school I decided I wanted to go to NAIT, which I did and by 1987 I was in the media business.
I worked in Kamloops, Grande Prairie, Lethbridge, Winnipeg, Toronto and finally came home to Edmonton as host of the Oilers in 1998. I compared my journey to that of a baseball player who goes from Rookie ball, to Single-A, Double-A, Triple-A and finally makes it to the Major Leagues.

We often hear athletes talk about their dream. It was my dream as well, but once pro sports was out as an athlete the dream became pro sports as an announcer. Luckily I have been able to accomplish that. To also have done it in my hometown covering the teams I grew up cheering for as a kid has made it even more incredible.
Everyone have a good week and a safe one.
Keep those questions coming with #AskGene on Twitter and comments on Facebook.