Respect

The knock out punch. They can come at anytime, depending on the situation, and they almost always get the same reaction. Shock, awe and concern for the knocked out party.

That was no more evident last Saturday in the AHL game between the Bakersfield Condors and the Stockton Heat. The 19-year-old @Calgary Flames prospect, @Martin Pospisil went looking for a dance partner in @Edmonton Oilers 24-year-old @Colby Cave. The fight that ensued was a spirited back and forth battle until the product of North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Cave caught Pospisil and knocked him out.

Colby Cave vs Martin Pospisil – October 19th, 2019

If you’re reading this article, you probably have seen the KO but linked above is the whole fight.

The reason for this article is not so much to re-live the knock out, as it is to pay respect to both guys for what they did/have done since.

As I have written before, sometimes you’re the guy who gets caught:

Open letter to Andrei Svechnikov

Whether that is from a fight, or from an open ice hit on an unsuspecting player, the message is the same, take time to recover (whatever that means for you personally) and get back to it.

Pospisil was up and tweeting the next day about the fight and he only had good things to say about it, as his fellow dance partner reached out to make sure he was ok:

https://twitter.com/mpospisil91/status/1185984922642571264

That is a great thing to see because at the end of the day, no one wants to see anyone hurt. The whole play from top to bottom is a show of that.

Cave can be immediately seen as concerned for Pospisil’s well being.
The trainer of the Condors came out onto the ice on his own accord to see if there was anything that could be done to help the Heat’s own trainer.
Then to cap it all off, Cave reaches out to see if Pospisil is ok, and Martin himself is already rearing to go again and get back on the ice.

You love to see it. The toughness to answer the bell, and the respect afterwards.