Fans pay tribute at a makeshift memorial for Blue Jackets star Johnny Gaudreau in Columbus, Ohio. Joe Maiorana/Associated Press
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Like everyone, I’ve been struggling to find the proper words to assess the tragic deaths of NHL hockey star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew.
The details are as infuriating as they are horrifying: both Gaudreaus, struck down on their bicycles not long after 8 p.m. Thursday in New Jersey, by a motorist suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol. That suspect, Sean Higgins, is charged with two counts of second degree vehicular homicide, and has yet to enter a plea.
Further agony: the Gaudreaus were in their hometown to be groomsmen at the wedding of their sister, Katie, due to happen the very next day.
It is pain beyond belief. A family preparing to celebrate a daughter’s joyful milestone will now say goodbye to two sons.
The South Jersey community is in mourning, as is the sport of hockey, a smaller world than you might assume. Tributes have poured in: from the NHL; from Johnny’s current and former clubs, the Columbus Blue Jackets and Calgary Flames; from Matthew’s ex-minor league pals and the area high school where he served as coach; from the brothers’ hockey alma mater, Boston College.
Moments of silence occurred as far away as Slovakia, where Olympic hopefuls from the host country and Hungary offered a pregame tribute to Johnny and Matthew, who were 31 and 29 years old, respectively.
“Johnny Hockey,” fans called the eldest boy, though the family went with John. The kid seemed born for the game, even if he was undersized, a mite who more or less stayed a mite—Johnny was 5-foot-6 and barely 135 pounds after a steak dinner when the Calgary Flames spent a fourth-round pick on him in 2011.
He got bigger, but not much. It didn’t matter: Gaudreau’s game was oversized, as was his heart.
Johnny Hockey became a seven-time NHL All-Star, a brilliant skater and scorer who flew around the ice creating opportunities for everyone. At B.C. he’d won the Hobey Baker Award as the nation’s top collegian, and they’ll remember him forever in Chestnut Hill for the one-on-two breakaway backhander he flipped past Ferris State to put away a national title in 2012.
Matthew Gaudreau was on that B.C. roster, too. Johnny could have turned pro before, but he stuck around another year, because he wanted to play with his kid brother.
“I just can’t put it together,” the legendary B.C. coach Jerry York, now retired, told WBZ-TV in Boston. “They were such a joy to coach.”
Johnny Hockey’s professional career would continue to blossom. He was admired for his class as well as his talent: in 2017, he was awarded the NHL’s Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, bestowed annually on the player who exhibits the best combination of sportsmanship and skill.
In 2022, Gaudreau scored a magical Game 7 overtime playoff winner for the Flames, and then took a big contract with the Blue Jackets in Ohio to be closer to his childhood home. His young family grew to include two children of his own.
Johnny Gaudreau was a seven-time NHL All-Star. Photo: Reuters
“You were perfect,” Gaudreau’s wife, Meredith, wrote on social media of her husband after his death. “Some days it felt too good to be true. I love every single thing about you. You are my forever and I can’t wait to be with you again. I love you so much forever and ever.”
Meredith posted 40 or so photographs of Johnny with her comments; and only two of them had anything to do with hockey. The vast majority of the snapshots are simple, everyday memories: birthday cake with the children; playing at the beach; goofing off with the family dog.
You know: Real life.
“We are going to make you so proud,” Meredith wrote.
Matthew Gaudreau and his wife, Madeline, were reportedly getting ready to welcome a child, too. A friend and former teammate told the New York Post that Matthew had recently accepted a coaching position in Pennsylvania that would keep him closer to home.
“He’d been on the road a lot coaching juniors the last few years, and he was excited that this position would have allowed him to be closer to his wife and baby on the way,” the friend, Frank DiChiara, said.
Matthew Gaudreau, right, played college hockey at Boston College. Photo: Chris O’Meara/Associated Press
Now what’s left behind is a trail of emotional carnage. A family statement from the Gaudreaus put the devastation starkly:
We lost two husbands, two fathers, two sons, two brothers, two sons and brothers-in-law, two nephews, two cousins, two family members, two teammates, two friends but truly two amazing humans.
It’s heartbreaking, all of it. If you’re enraged, I think it’s OK to let that feeling sit for a little while, too. It’s difficult to take in the reported details of this tragedy—the allegations of driving under the influence, the alleged attempt to pass a pair of vehicles when the two brothers were struck—without a current of fury.
I think it’s OK to feel that. I feel it, too.
In southern New Jersey, a hockey family feels it much more acutely.
Agony. It is the only word.
