It Sounds Like Brian Boyle Will Play In His First Game After Being Diagnosed With Cancer On Wednesday
The Devils have a little 3-game roadie coming up in Canada this week. They’ll be in Vancouver on Wednesday, Edmonton on Friday, and Calgary on Sunday. Kyle Palmieri won’t be making the trip with a foot injury and with Brian Boyle getting cleared to participate in practice last week, it looks like he’ll be making his season debut at some point during the trip. And in case you forgot, this will be the first time Brian Boyle sees some game action after he was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia in September.
Now I wouldn’t put too much expectation on Boyle if he gets in the lineup on Wednesday. I highly doubt we’ll ever see another “The Return of Mario” moment again.
But the universe usually finds a way to make things happen. Regardless, I don’t think there’s a single hockey fan in the world who won’t be pulling for Boyle to pot one him in his first game back. It’s just a great, inspirational story to come out of a pretty unfortunate situation. The Devils have a little magic going right now and it’s not just because it’s Halloween time (Darren Rovell about to nut himself if he ever reads that sentence). They’re currently the top team in the Metro at 8-2-0. They’ve got their rookies cooking, +9 goal differential after being at -61 last season, and now they’ve got Brian Boyle making his return to the ice. Something that the team can really rally around. They’re just a really likeable team right now. That’s hard to say as a Philly fan and I’m sure I’ll start to hate them the first time they play the Flyers this year. But for the time being, they’re just a super easy team to like.
P.S. – I always forget about how handsome Brian Boyle is. 6’6″, chiseled, handsome as could be, and now he’s kicking the shit out of cancer. Dude is like Superman. It’s intimidating to say the least.