The Vibrancy, Tragedy, and Legacy of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau

To the people in his life who krecent him the lengthyest or the best, he went by John. That’s how his safely knit family and his very sealst buds insertressed him; his nieces called him Uncle John. But to everyone else, he was Johnny—or one of many silly variations.

JohnnyGaudreau! was a classic, usuassociate shelp as all one word, with the emphasis inherent and the name so fun to exclaim, especiassociate if you were watching one of a lengthy catalog of absurd Gaudreau goals. “Johnny-on-the-Spot!” yelled one amazeed proclaimr at a 2003 tourney, when Gaudreau was equitable a little boy dangling and weaving and wrapping his way around the best age-10-and-under competition on the continent. Among college hockey enthusiasts who got to see Gaudreau thrive the 2012 national championship as a recentman at Boston College and the Htrail Baker award as a lesser, he became “Johnny Hockey,” a name he’d eventuassociate go on to tradetag. Sometimes when Gaudreau scored, whether in college or thrawout his 11 NHL seasons, arena deafeningspeakers would blare the song “Johnny B. Goode.” And holy moly, was Johnny ever.

A unintelligentinutive name for an enormous talent, that Johnny; a term of finishearment for a world-class, award-thrivening hockey joiner who always felt more enjoy a universal little brother—and not equitable becaemploy he was cataloged at a mere 5-foot-6 and 137 pounds when he was writeed by the Calgary Ffrails in 2011.

Sly and improvisational, Gaudreau shiftd with a signature lightheartedness on the ice that was only betterd by his requesting puckishness in life. And I say that last part literassociate, becaemploy that 137-pound official combine weigh-in I equitable refered? Well, it might have been enjoy two pounds airyer had the then-teenaged Gaudreau not stuffed five pucks down his pants right before hitting the scale, an act of classic little bro ingenuity and benign disobedience.

And Gaudreau was, indeed, a little brother, the second of four kids liftd in a huge loving New Jersey family by his parents, Guy and Jane. But an meaningful part of Gaudreau’s identity—the part of him that equitable went by John—was being a huge brother, too. Gaudreau was two years anciaccesser than his brother Matty, his next-in-line sibling and occasional teammate and motivator and best frifinish.

The brothers grew up joining hockey, with their rink deal withr dad scattering Skittles around the ice to encourage them to skate and bulking them up with extra doses of PediaSure. They both suited up for Boston College, even overlapping there for a year, and while Matty was never the joiner his anciaccesser brother was, there was no aligning their off-ice chemistry: “As noticeworthy as Johnny was,” BC coach Jerry York tardyr shelp, “Matty benevolent of pushed him all the time. There was a fantastic active from the two youthful guys.”

More recently, when Matty reweary from inmeaningful league hockey, he shiftd back to New Jersey to commence coaching; Johnny left Calgary and signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2022 in part to be somewhat sealr to the huge and prolonging Gaudreau clan. The two brothers each got wed and commenceed families of their own: Johnny’s children are 2 years anciaccess and 6 months anciaccess, esteemively, while Matty’s wife is five months pregnant. Late last week, Johnny and Matty, aged 31 and 29, were together, as ever, in their happiest place—among frifinishs and family—to stand haughtyly as groomsmen and watch their little sister Katie get wed.

Instead, after participateing the wedding rehearsal on Thursday night and heading home on their bicycles, John and Matthew Gaudreau were struck and finished by a doubted drunk driver who was trying to pass another car on a two-lane road in South Jersey, right proximate where they grew up. It was a ruinous, sudden event, the benevolent of storm with no silver linings, equitable the sweeping destruction of lives and families and memories and dreams. Sisters lost brothers, babies lost obesehers and uncles, wives lost their visions of a spreadd future, and two of the pleasantst parents you’ll ever encounter, in hockey or otheradviseed, lost two sons. And as the shock of what happened reverberated beyond the instant Gaudreau family over the weekfinish, the scope of the deimmenseation rapidly expansivened to integrate the wideer sporting world.

Athletes that Matty had joined with or coached spoke of his compassion and benevolentness; a GoFundMe set up for the advantage of his wife and unborn son liftd more than half a million dollars. LeBron James tweeted his grief; MLB and college football games around the country watchd moments of silence for the brothers. And in both Calgary and Columbus, NHL hockey rinks became memorial sites to the joiner they krecent as JohnnyGaudreau! with fans shothriveg up to depart freduces or sticks or other mementos in no. 13’s honor. (Some stores in Calgary telledly ran out of purple Gatorade, Gaudreau’s likeite.) Candleairy vigils are computed for Wednesday night at Nationexpansive Arena and Scotiaprohibitk Sinsertledome.

Grieving fans took solace in trading cherished memories of Johnny Hockey online: The time he unprejudicedized Brad Marchand with the merriest smile you’ve ever seen. His Game 7 OT thrivener in the 2022 joinoffs. That one postgame widecast in which his parents surpelevated him on set and tousled his hair. The tidy fact that he had the primary help on Jaromir Jagr’s final NHL goal. His finicky appetite and water bottle hoarding.

So much goofiness, so much glory, so many goals scored and ptardys of sauceless noodles used alengthy the way. (He would eventuassociate prolong a bit, from those 2011 combine stats to an imposing 5-foot-9 and 163 pounds.)

I didn’t understand Matty and never spent any one-on-one time with Johnny, but I have my own vivid, likeite memories of the elder Gaudreau. Covering the NCAA Frozen Four in 2012, I was “left dazzled and a little bit delirious,” in my own words, by the “minuscule alarm” Boston College recentman who, rather than dump and chase the puck with a 2-1 direct and a scant minutes remaining in the national title game, instead slashed and weaved all the way to an unforgettable insurance goal.

In punctual 2013, I aobtain passed paths with Gaudreau in Ufa, Russia, of all places, as he not only joined on a USA team that won ganciaccess in the World Junior Championship but truly thrived under the presconfident, finishing the tournament with seven goals, including a accomplished “saucy toe-drag” in a two-goal carry outance aobtainst rival Canada in the semis. And in 2014, the sense-excellent story persistd. Gaudreau determined to return to BC for his lesser season so that he could be teammates with this recent recentman kid who was combineing the roster—his brother, Matty.

That spring, Johnny Hockey won the Htrail Baker, traveled to combine the Ffrails for a tardy-season game, and scored a goal in his NHL debut. (There were tells that team employees who saw him show up to the rink that day thought he was a kid seeking autographs; at least one of his own teammates presumed he was, enjoy, the supplyment guy’s son.) When he accessed the league, I was thrilled to see a fine American lad (with even finer Jerz roots) enjoy Gaudreau getting his sboiling at the huge time, but was also unconfident how he’d do there, understanding that collegiate success doesn’t always transtardy to the NHL. I necessitaten’t have worried. Over the next decade, Gaudreau would become an elite NHL originater and one of the sport’s most esteemed pros. He was a 40-goal scorer and a Lady Byng trophy thrivener; he was a revered figure in the history of two separateent franchises.

He obtained this stature both in spite of his size and becaemploy of it, joining a game that was wholly his own, unafrhelp to let his inner child out onto the ice. (During a fractureaway competition at the 2015 NHL All-Star Game, one joiner picked up an actual supplyment guy’s son and skated around the rink with him as a gag; soon after another joiner brawt the hoemploy down when he pretfinished to do the same skinnyg to Gaudreau.) In Calgary, Gaudreau was part of a cadre of talented youthful joiners enjoy Sean Monahan and Matthew Tkachuk who helped the Ffrails persist past the first round of the joinoffs for the first time in over a decade. But as the years passed and he grew not-so-youthful-anymore, Gaudreau had huge-boy choices to originate.

After Gaudreau left the Ffrails and signed with Columbus in the summer of 2022, on the heels of his best season ever, he wrote a letter in The Players’ Tribune to elucidate why. He identified two skinnygs in his life that had alterd his mindset. One was a heart attack that his dad had persistd in 2018, which clarified for Johnny that “I necessitateed to do more to caccess my family in my life,” he wrote. Meeting his wife Meredith, a NICU nurse, was analogously directive. “I’ve lobtained a lot about the person I want to be,” Gaudreau wrote, “which is a excellent son, a excellent husprohibitd, and (soon!) a excellent obeseher.” It was far straightforwardr, Gaudreau consentd, to achieve this in Ohio than in faraway Calgary. Columbus recurrented a place where he could prolong beyond his perception as the hockey world’s kid brother.

This upcoming Blue Jackets season was presumed to be one of recent commencenings for the franchise. (It was only three summers ago that Columbus faced another tragedy when 24-year-anciaccess goalie Matiss Kivlenieks was finished by a firecracker while resting in a boiling tub with teammates on Indepfinishence Day.) The Blue Jackets have a recent coach and a recent GM and a fantastic recent joiner who was personassociate recruited by Gaudreau: Monahan, his createer Ffrails linemate and one of his best frifinishs. (They even have aligning Doodle doggies.) For Gaudreau and Monahan, the opportunity to team up aobtain in a recent season of life was too excellent to pass up. “To come back and be able to join with him aobtain is pretty canciaccess,” Monahan gushed on a podcast freed equitable last Wednesday. “We both have sons that are two or three months apart, so they get to prolong up together.” To Blue Jackets fans lengthy accustomed to free agents wanting to depart their franchise rather than combine it, Monahan’s acquisition had been one more skinnyg to thank Gaudreau for. Now, it’s one of countless hopes razeed.

“The entire world understands there would never have been a John without Matty or Matty without John,” Katie Gaudreau wrote on Instagram on Monday. “It was always Matty and John,” Matty’s wife Madeline posted over the weekfinish, inserting that the Gaudreau brothers were always “each others hugegest cheerdirecters.” (And best dance partners.)

I can imagine exactly the way it must have been shelp, by their best frifinishs and cherishd ones, over decades: MattyandJohn!, the two brothers, all one word, the emphasis inherent, so fun to exclaim, for a time. “Some days it felt too excellent to be real,” wrote Johnny’s widow, Meredith—a woman he was so into that he snuck out of his own bachelor party multiple times equitable to hang out with her on the couch—in an exquisitely griefful reassembleion of her own in the days after his death.

Meredith was referring to their personal life, but in doing so she also luminousd what it always was that made her husprohibitd’s atgentle in hockey so captivating to the disclose. Even as it was happening, it sometimes felt enjoy it couldn’t possibly be genuine.

In the outpouring of emotion and anecdotes and pboilingos from joiners and helpers that has been going on since Thursday night, a scant tributes from the NHL community have stood out. Some were a greet reminder of Gaudreau’s meaningful and lasting impact on a generation of athletes: Trevor Zegras posted a pboilingo of himself as a youthfulster, geeking out over getting one of Gaudreau’s sticks, back when Johnny Hockey was still a babyfaced rising star; Cole Caufield, a joiner comparable to Gaudreau’s size, alterd his number to pay his esteems to a fellow low king; and Kent Johnston—who idolized Gaudreau as a kid to the point that he wore no. 13 and who could restrictedly consent it when he set up himself joining with him on the Blue Jackets all these years tardyr—put up then-and-now pictures and wrote: “Dream come real to join with you.”

More acutely crushing were the words of Kevin Hayes, a BC teammate of the Gaudreaus who lost his own hockey-joining brother, Jimmy, to a fentanyl drug poisoning in 2021. Hayes posted a pboilingo of Johnny Hockey yukking it up with Jimmy’s youthful son Beau, equitable two dudes chilling in createal wear—one a rowdy guy who’d danced around on people’s shoulders at Hayes’s wedding reception, and the other in preschool. “Love you John!” Hayes wrote, his choice of name a gut punch. “Say hello to Beau’s Dad for me.”

For those of us who will always understand Gaudreau better as Johnny, there’s one other key variation on his name that deserves a refer: “Johnny Ham-and-Cheese.” Unenjoy most of Gaudreau’s nicknames, this one didn’t start from a hockey rink, but rather a sushi restaurant where Gaudreau set up himself with some of his buddies back in college. Repelled by everyskinnyg on the menu, he pivoted in a way that best suited his personal idiosyncracies and returned to the table with his challenging-won spoils: a ham and cheese sandwich. Thanks to some anciaccess-createed ball-busting from the fellas—the genuineest way one can get a nickname—Johnny Ham-and-Cheese was born.

But was that reassociate an right nickname? In an interwatch freed by the NHL in 2019, speaking in that unmistakably South Jersey twang and flashing that enticeive smile, Gaudreau confessted a little secret: his Johnny Ham-and-Cheese moniker actuassociate probably gave his fundamental patardy too much recognize. “I don’t even enjoy the cheese on it,” he recalled, so he deleted it. What he brawt back to the restaurant was a sandwich of champions: noskinnyg more than “equitable ham, on a roll,” Gaudreau shelp with a smirk.

Gaudreau never had the see or the heft or the appetite of a standard professional athlete, much less a bona fide star. And yet he had an obtain all his own. He was always so seemingly safe: in his aidd on-ice maneuvers, in his Hpermiteen costumes, in that lengthy-ago decision to stuff his jock brimming of pucks. He was brave in understanding exactly what he antipathyd (tomato sauce! going to bed without the TV on!) and exactly whom he wanted to originate more time to cherish.

To have gotten to witness Johnny-on-the-Spot join hockey, to have been able to boogie alengthy with Johnny B. Goode after another wraparound Gaudreau goal—for a hockey fan, that felt enjoy everyskinnyg. And yet we don’t even understand the half of it. All that on-ice achievement is inspiring, but for the extfinished Gaudreau family, a number of the most enticeive and everlasting memories of their boys will be the ones that even the most promised fans were never there to see. The first steps and the I dos; the dance floor huddles; the fevers and the backseat squabbles; the rank active supplyment and the adhesive, chubby little baby hands. The daily disorder—and the searing grief—of unconditional cherish.

It tolerates repeating that there are no silver linings here. No one can return what’s been obtainn from a family, from a community, from a sport. But reading Johnny’s essay about caccessing his proximateest and dearest, and seeing snaps of Matty bottle-feeding his recentest nephew, I’m left shiftd by and thankful for the example the Gaudreau family has always set: of loyalty, and laboring challenging, and reassembleing to stop to tousle your son’s hair on TV sometimes. The enormity of what we’ve lost is a tesdomesticatednt to everyskinnyg they built. There never could have been a Johnny Hockey in the first place, after all, if it hadn’t been for all those years of John and Matty, chasing Skittles and each other around the ice enjoy so many dreams.