Colley played two full seasons with Bridgeport before impressing the Islanders enough to call him up. He made his NHL debut inside Madison Square Garden on October 27, 2005, against the New York Rangers, and even though he was subsequently sent back down to Bridgeport for a while, he figured out a way to get back up and stay up.

"I wasn't gonna let them send me back down," says Colley. "I was gonna be a good team guy and do whatever it took to win. When I got recalled, we started winning hockey games, and any time you start winning games when you're contributing, you know you're making a difference."

Colley certainly made a difference in his 16 appearances with the Islanders, and he enjoyed every single minute.

"I earned a spot every night, and it was a dream come true," he says. "I wish every kid that loves the game as much as I do could experience playing in the National Hockey League ... It was something special. I'll never forget it."

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Colley remembers just about everything that happened to him on January 31, 2006, in vivid detail.

"Probably more than I'd like to," he says.

He remembers going to the airport that morning to pick up his father, Tom, who had witnessed his son's first and second NHL games but hadn't yet been to Long Island, where Colley's team would be facing the Washington Capitals that night.

As his nightmarish evening unfolded, Colley would feel incredibly grateful for his dad's presence.

When the play that resulted in his neck injury developed and Colley had the opportunity to check Howard, he instinctively raced toward him. That's when his life changed forever.

"(I) just went into the boards there, and I knew something was wrong," says Colley. "Obviously if you watch the replay, you can see I was really scared. I knew my upper body was numb."

He initially wondered if he had been paralyzed but was able to move his legs and figured the injury wasn't "too, too severe."

"I just got up off the ice and went for an X-ray there, and I wasn't expecting to have four fractured vertebras," he says. "Next thing I know they're cutting my gear off, putting me in a neck brace, and away I went to the hospital."

With his father at his side, Colley came out of an MRI, at which point the doctor delivered brief but grim news.

"The doc just said, 'All right, we're gonna put a halo on you,'" Colley remembers. "And I'm lookin' at my dad like, 'What's going on?' ... So they just loaded the halo on right then and there with me awake. That's a scary moment when you're gettin' four screws drilled into your head and you're awake, but they had to get it stabilized."

Colley knew as soon as the halo was attached to his head that his career was over, and the process to be able to walk again and lead a normal life ensued.

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