This year, TJ Oshie’s father Tim could not join the Washington Capitals on their annual Mentor’s Trip like in past seasons. Tim has trouble traveling due to a fight with Alzheimer’s disease – a battle he’s been fighting at least since 2012. Oshie’s father-in-law, Dave Cosgrove (Lauren’s Dad), joined the trip instead.
But that doesn’t mean that the Caps’ Dads forgot about Tim, who they affectionately refer to as Coach. Monday, during the Capitals-Blue Jackets game, the fathers facetimed Tim on an iPad from their suite at Nationwide Arena.
The interaction is the sweetest thing.
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The #CapsDads facetime'd Coach Osh!#ALLCAPS @TJOshie77 pic.twitter.com/GYPILh3vhZ
— Washington ☃️ Capitals (@Capitals) December 17, 2019
“Hey, Coach! How ya doing, buddy?” one of the Caps Dads says as the call begins. “We miss ya a bunch. I have a bunch of guys that want to personally say hi to you, okay?”
Fathers of John Carlson and Braden Holtby can be heard telling Tim “Good to see you” and “Cheers, you’re looking good.” The dads passed the iPad around so everyone who wanted to could say hi.
At the end of the call, the Caps’ Dads break out in a Let’s Go Caps! chant with Tim.
“Cheers, Coach!” they said. “We love ya!”
Tim’s fight with Alzheimer’s has been well documented over the years. TJ even spoke about his father’s battle with the disease minutes after the Capitals won the Stanley Cup in 2018.
“My Dad’s here in the crowd,” a tearing up Oshie said, when asked what it meant to win it in front of Tim. “He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and he doesn’t remember a lot of stuff, but you bet your ass he’s going to remember this one.”
And indeed, Oshie’s father, did not forget the Stanley Cup win the next morning.
“This moment. I knew it was going to stick with him so to hug him down there and to have him touch and hold the Cup was a special moment,” Oshie said on Wayne Gretzky’s podcast in May 2019. “And sure enough, he woke up in Vegas the next morning, he was staying with his sister and my sister. He woke up and the first thing he said when he woke up was ‘we got the Cup.’ So, it was pretty cool experience for me to share with him.”
Since then, Oshie has become an advocate for Alzheimer’s awareness and research.
“When you’re affected by it personally, you want to do whatever you can to prevent it from happening, cure it from happening, and make your family member’s life easier and more fulfilling,” Oshie said.
The Oshie family has participated in local events that help fight Alzheimer’s, including The Walk to End Alzheimer’s DC. The family has also raised funds for the Alzheimer’s Association by participating in campaigns and hosting raffles.
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Blue Jackets
Headline photo: @Capitals
