He stood alone on stage, facing a packed house of his peers, retired players and fans. As he spoke, he either looked down at the trophy in his hands or to where his wife, Lauren Bedford, sat in the crowd on their wedding anniversary.

The New Jersey Devils forward stuttered and stammered, often pausing to regain control of himself while trying to power through his acceptance speech after winning the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for his perseverance and dedication to hockey.

LAS VEGAS -- On a night filled with emotion, Brian Boyle appeared that he would lose the battle to keep his in check at the 2018 NHL Awards Presented by Hulu at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas on Wednesday.

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Images of the past year raced through his head; more bad than good, he said.

"Just what a [bad] year it was, to be honest with you," he said of his thoughts in those moments when he was struggling on stage.

Then images of his children, his 1-year-old daughter Bella and 3-year-old son Declan, who has an arteriovenous malformation of his jaw, a rare condition that impacts blood flow and oxygen circulation, followed.

Video: Brian Boyle on Devils' success, Masterton nomination

Declan has had numerous procedures done at Boston Children's Hospital to get the condition under control, but there is still pain, swelling and bleeding almost daily. Eating is a chore.

"My son and my daughter aren't too far from my mind ever," he said. "Thankfully, our daughter, she is great, she is perfect. Always a big smile and she has been pretty low maintenance.

"My son, he's my little buddy. He's so unbelievable and he has gone through eight or nine operations already, all in the last eight months. I know that is why I am up there. I know that I got to play because of what my wife has done and that is why I am up there.

"It makes me angry sometimes what he has had to deal with, but it brings me a lot of joy with what has come out of it and there is more to come hopefully."

Boyle also thought of his own battle with chronic myeloid leukemia, a type of cancer that affects the bone marrow. He was diagnosed after a training camp physical and returned to play on Nov. 1. He had 23 points (13 goals, 10 assists) in 69 games. He also represented the Devils at the 2018 NHL All-Star Game in Tampa.

"This has been quite the year," Boyle said. "We have a tremendous amount of memories, some good ones and [some] not so good ones. We are not going to forget this year; we're not going to forget all that we have been through. My wife and I, it has brought us closer. It's our [fourth wedding] anniversary today. It's funny how God works sometimes."

Boyle said he learned a lot about himself during this most trying period of his life, but he also learned a lot about people since he revealed his condition last Sept. 19.

Video: Brian Boyle presented with Bill Masterton Trophy

"It's such a great community to be a part of because you try to lift each other up," he said. "The people that came together to try to lift me up, the prayers, the notes, the gifts from the fans in Jersey and elsewhere. It's unbelievable."

It was a tough year in the hockey community on many fronts, a fact Boyle was quick to acknowledge. He knows he didn't suffer alone.

There was the mass shooting in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, 2017, five days before the Vegas Golden Knights opened their inaugural season. There was the school shooting in Parkland, Florida on Feb. 14 that killed 17 people. Several members of the Florida Panthers, including goalie Roberto Luongo, another Masterton finalist, live in or near Parkland. On April 6, a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos, a junior hockey team, crashed in Saskatchewan, killing 16 people.

Each tragedy was memorialized during the awards show, its survivors celebrated.

"Things happened this year all across the League that were just devastating; devastating news all over the place it seemed like," Boyle said. "If you dwell on that, it's pretty depressing. When I get interviewed, when I get asked about what was so special this year, that was a big part of it. People are good. People are good people. Bad things happened and it's how we react to them. Your faith in humanity gets restored a little bit when I saw it firsthand."

Boyle is ready to finish his mini-vacation/anniversary celebration with his wife and get back to his children and continue the return to better health with Declan.

He sees brighter days ahead.

"It's [been] a ton of emotion this week," Boyle said. "Hopefully, [Declan] is on the road to recovery and we can get him in and get him fixed up again. Then we can go into next year, just worry about hockey and just winning and losing and all that fun stuff."