The annual Hockey Fights Cancer event takes place at the Canadian Tire Centre Saturday, and Ottawa Senators players say this year's is more personal.
Goalie Craig Anderson will start the game against Buffalo after taking a brief leave to be with his wife, Nicholle, who was recently diagnosed with the disease.
Bobby Ryan, who lost his mother to liver cancer in July, says the event is a reminder there are bigger things than a hockey game.
"It's a little closer to home this year," he says. "It's incredible when you're affected by it just how commonplace the word becomes. I felt like I was pretty sheltered (from) the disease until last year and then you get hit with it individually and it seems to cough up again."
Proceeds from each ticket for Saturday’s game will be donated to cancer care and research at the Ottawa Hospital.