Former Colorado Avalanche player criticizes pro-Palestinian protesters in New York
Over 100 days since the Israel-Hamas war began, one former Colorado Avalanche player has taken to social media, lambasting pro-Palestinian protesters who marched outside a cancer hospital in New York City.
A video posted on X shows the protestors marching past Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a hospital in Manhattan. A protest leader can be heard in the video calling the hospital “another complicit institution”. In addition to diagnosing and treating various types of cancer, the hospital houses a pediatric center.
“If you are wondering what scum of the earth look like, it’s these people harassing and yelling at children at Sloan Kettering getting cancer treatments,” former Avalanche defenseman Colby Cohen responded on X. “Hard to fathom there are adults that condone and support that type of behavior.”
Cohen later doubled down on his stance, posting, “There is nothing controversial about this. If you think it’s okay to harass children getting treated for cancer then you are a low life. Pretty simple.”
Cohen grew up in a household with two Jewish parents and is open about his Jewish faith. On his X profile, he has pinned a photo which says, “I stand with Israel”. Of note, Cohen is first cousins with former Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver and Olympic freestyle skier Jeremy Bloom.
Cohen was drafted by the Avalanche, 45th overall in the 2007 NHL Draft. He spent most of his time playing for the Lake Erie Monsters in the AHL before making his NHL debut for Colorado in a 5-0 shutout of the Dallas Stars in November 2010.
After three games with the Avalanche, he was sent back down to the AHL before being traded to the Boston Bruins.
With Boston, he was a member of the 2011 Stanley Cup winning Bruins team and received a Stanley Cup ring, although he did not play.
