You couldn't miss Seth and Sarah Roberts as they walked through the concourse before the game at Nationwide Arena.
Sporting identical lavender Hockey Fights Cancer-inspired Blue Jackets jerseys and identical CBJ-branded HFC stocking caps, the couple from London, Ohio, was equally ready to root on their favorite team and recognize the theme of the evening.
It's a celebration that hits home for the pair. Two years ago, Sarah was diagnosed with stage 4 cervical cancer. Her tumors will never go away as part of the incurable cancer, but the good news is they haven't spread anywhere else on her body.
She's vowed to keep on fighting with all she has, and the couple's love of the Blue Jackets have been there along the way. The two bought the lavender jerseys shortly after she was diagnosed, and they now make sure to attend the Hockey Fights Cancer game each season, even having their CBJ ticket rep swap it out for another game if it's not part of their quarter season package.
"This night means a lot to both of us," Sarah said. "When I was first diagnosed and I started on heavy chemo, I wasn't feeling good early on, and we'd put on the Jackets and watch."
Cancer has impacts on people in a variety of different ways. For the Roberts family, it has shown just how precious life can be -- and how important every moment of life is.
"It changed me because instead of always looking at the bad side of things and maybe being angry, now you look at it and say, 'Why are so many people so angry all the time?'" Seth Roberts said. "You have not a clue what life has in store for you. You don't have a clue. So why be mad? Be happy about everything you've got because in the blink of an eye it can be gone. Then what are you going to do? Every time you think you have a setback, put a smile on your face, get up, and go do what you have to do.
"As long as you're living, cancer is not winning. Cancer only wins when you give up. If you die and you die fighting, it didn't win. It can take your body, but it cannot take your mind, your heart and your soul."