Ice hockey star Johnny Gaudreau was lastly again house in New Jersey this week — the NHL participant with show-stopping abilities for the Columbus Blue Jackets scheduled to be the groomsman within the wedding ceremony of child sister, Katie.
Little brother Matthew was a part of the marriage occasion, too. So was the eldest of the 4 Gaudreau siblings, sister Kristen, the maid of honour. All had been waiting for yet another wonderful day in a life seemingly full of them as the primary household of hockey in South Jersey.
The marriage was set for Friday at a Catholic church in New Jersey. Tragedy got here the evening earlier than when Johnny, 31, and Matt, 29, died after they had been hit by a suspected drunken driver whereas using bicycles within the Delaware River nation south of Philadelphia, police mentioned.
The marriage was delay in a hurricane of grief and shock.
Far past the rink, the siblings had been as intertwined as any household may very well be, united like they had been smiling within the higher deck of a 2014 Philadelphia Phillies sport. Or at a Boston School hockey sport from earlier that very same yr, when the 2 brothers performed for the Eagles.
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Katie Gaudreau’s Instagram web page is dotted with images of the siblings goofing off at video games, posing subsequent to a Christmas tree, having fun with a day on the New Jersey shore — snapshots of a tight-knit household whose bond stretched far past recollections cheering on Johnny and his rise to NHL stardom with Calgary and Columbus.
Followers referred to as him “Johnny Hockey,” a moniker earned for his infectious spirit for the sport and eye-popping abilities. On NHL rosters, he was merely Johnny Gaudreau.
And on that wedding ceremony occasion listing, he was simply John Gaudreau. His son, little Johnny Gaudreau, all of seven months previous, was set to be a hoop bearer alongside sister Noa, who turns two in October. She was to be a flower lady for her aunt. Matt was anticipating his first baby in December this yr.
Now there can be no reception or after occasion in Philadelphia, town whose groups Johnny rooted for even into maturity. He as soon as advised reporters at an NHL All-Star sport he nonetheless rocked a “lime-green ” beanie within the winter of his assist for the Eagles within the NFL.
Philly hockey followers yearned for years for Gaudreau to come back again and play for the Flyers, all the time hoping he would signal a free-agent deal or for administration to accumulate him in a commerce.
His house state Devils even thought that they had Gaudreau just for him to signal with the Columbus Blue Jackets two years in the past.
“I felt that we had been going to be a vacation spot for him,” Devils normal supervisor Tom Fitzgerald mentioned.
The concept of enjoying for the Flyers all the time held some enchantment for Gaudreau, whose mother and father, Man and Jane, moved the household from Vermont to New Jersey earlier than the boys had been born.
“I’ve a ton of household right here, all my buddies,” Gaudreau advised a Philadelphia sports activities radio station in 2017.
Brothers Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau have fun after the Boston School Eagles beat the Northeastern College Huskies to win their fifth Beanpot Championship in a row in 2014. (Getty Photos: Richard T. Gagnon)
“All my good buddies and youngsters who I’ve performed with all my life are from South Jersey, so it might be candy to play right here some day.”
The tug got here tougher after his father’s coronary heart assault in 2018. After eight full seasons in Calgary, he determined to return to the US, not in New Jersey or Philadelphia however with Columbus.
“(A)s a lot as I really like hockey … household is every thing to me,” he wrote in The Gamers’ Tribune.
“It is an important connection I’ve. And some years in the past, I feel I began to grasp how a lot you sacrifice once you give 100 per cent to your profession. I felt like I wanted to do extra to centre my household in my life after we skilled some onerous instances.”
Columbus was extra of a match for his rising household — the place maybe he might stroll downtown in anonymity — fairly than the ticket and autograph calls for, the buddies who needed just some minutes earlier than the sport, the great instances usually overwhelmed by the distracting pull of enjoying for one of many hometown groups.
“I all the time mentioned I needed to play nearer to house, however (Columbus) is not too near the place I’d get bombarded with family and friends continuous,” Gaudreau mentioned on the ‘Spittin’ Chiclets ‘ podcast in 2022.
“(It is) principally an open-door coverage (the place you) are available everytime you need. That is form of how we’re down the Shore, but when we did all of it yr, I feel it might have gotten a bit out of hand at instances.”
Baseball’s Philadelphia Phillies observe a second of silence in honour of the Gaudreau brothers. (Getty Photos: Drew Hallowell)
Gaudreau, although, remained true to his South Jersey roots. He supported space youth hockey applications, together with the 43 Oak Basis, which focuses on furthering training by the game of ice hockey for underprivileged and numerous youth.
“Johnny, you’re a core purpose now we have been capable of get to the place we’re right now as a basis,” the inspiration wrote on Instagram.
“Spending time with the youngsters. Vocalising your opinions on altering the sport. You’ll be certainly missed.”
In a tribute to each brothers — Matthew performed within the American Hockey League — the assertion mentioned it might “hold the stands out on the door step”.
Gaudreau had hosted a golf event in New Jersey to lift cash towards scholarships at Gloucester Catholic Excessive Faculty, which he attended and was a centrepiece for the household.
Matt coached the Gloucester Catholic hockey workforce, a program his father helped discovered, and the brothers and Katie had been all graduates.
Gaudreau’s final journey house ought to have been one to savour for all the appropriate causes. Dances and toasts. Photos in entrance of Philly landmarks. Perhaps even a late-night cheesesteak run — each Gaudreau and the anticipated bride and groom had been “workforce Geno’s! “
What’s left as an alternative for individuals who knew him, who chanted for “Johnny Hockey,” is unhappiness for a household eternally shattered.
AP
