Columbus Blue Jackets, Calgary Flames grieve Johnny Gaudreau together with hugs, hits
Three months ago, two tour buses rolled up to Saint Mary Magdalene Church in Media, Pennsylvania, prior to a joint funeral service for Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau .
They parked one behind the other. The first carried members of the Blue Jackets' traveling party. The second brought the Calgary Flames . As players, coaches, executives, staffers and even former members of each organization departed, they sought comfort in each others’ presence.
Handshakes, hugs, tears and memories were shared before all headed inside for a service attended by many NHL dignitaries. Those within hockey often talk about a brotherhood that exists in the sport, covering all levels, but nothing drives the point home like the sight of two grieving NHL teams coping together during a tragic shared loss .
Part of that brotherhood, though, is what happens when the puck hits the ice in games between those same teams — which the Blue Jackets and Flames experienced Friday at Nationwide Arena . There was no special pregame or midgame ceremony to honor the Gaudreaus, but their presence was felt in the first game between the Blue Jackets and Flames since the brothers were killed in August by an alleged drunk driver as they biked along a two-lane road in South Jersey.
The Blue Jackets won 5-2, and the way the game unfolded was one of the most “hockey” things you’ll ever find. It had some big hits, heated emotions, three fistfights, at least one swollen eye socket and equal parts respect and disdain.
That's hockey in a nutshell, isn't it?
Four days later, on Tuesday in Calgary, they'll do it again in the building Johnny Gaudreau called home for the nine-plus seasons before signing with the Blue Jackets . The Gaudreau family, including parents Jane and Guy, are expected to attend what's likely to be another emotional remembrance in a city that loved their oldest son. Some Flames players, including Rasmus Andersson, said Friday’s matchup in Columbus was difficult, skating around beneath Gaudreau's No. 13 banner at Nationwide Arena.
Imagine what Blue Jackets center Sean Monahan is going through after signing with Columbus on July 1 as a free agent to reunite with Gaudreau, his longtime friend and former teammate in Calgary. Despite having his heart ripped out, Monahan is off to a fantastic start with the Blue Jackets. He's one of their leading scorers, centers their top line and lockers next to the empty stall where his friend used to dress.
Now, Monahan and the rest of the Blue Jackets will again work through strong emotions prior to a big game. The Flames will do the same. It's something the Jackets already experienced before their home-opening loss to the Florida Panthers, when the game’s first 13 seconds ticked by without a Columbus left wing on the ice.
All season, they’ve played amid reminders of the tragedy.
Helmet stickers. Their banner. The new donkey-hat postgame award. Gaudreau’s No. 13 jersey hanging in his vacant locker stall every game. They couldn’t escape it even if they tried, so instead they’ve embraced it all. It’s the hockey way.
The brotherhood.
“It’s been the outpouring of support and love and emotion, all of that,” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said. “It’s been incredible for the family (and) for the guys, but the players? They compete their asses off against each other, but when they leave, it’s human beings and all those guys have friends on other teams, and there’s coaching friends and everything.”
Evason has spent most of his adult life in professional hockey as a gritty player and intense coach. He’s done both tasks with a hardened edge that seeks success on the ice that leads to mutual respect away from it.
“You’re going to compete,” he said, “but once the game’s over you can be a human. And there’s been a lot of love and a lot of support.”
Expect nothing less in Calgary, where an estimated 10,000 people attended a candlelight vigil in September at Saddledome. There, outside Nationwide Arena in Columbus and at the intersection near the crash site in South Jersey, fans built makeshift memorials for the Gaudreaus with hockey sticks, jerseys, signs, Skittles and bottles of purple Gatorade.
They chanted, "Johnny Hockey!" in Calgary and Columbus.
They're going to chant that again Tuesday night in Calgary until it rings off every corner of a cavernous arena with an iconic shape.
Then, they're going to drop the puck for the Blue Jackets and Flames to pick up any carryover hostilities where they left off four days ago in Columbus. Calgary is 0-3-1 in its past four games, so the Flames will play with urgency to end that winless skid. Meanwhile, the Blue Jackets are riding a six-game point streak that has them within reach of a playoff spot.
More carnage will be inflicted, but the Jackets and Flames are now eternally linked by their shared heartbreak and hockey's brotherhood.
“It’s one of those things ... You say that you’re not going to let it get to you, but it’s inevitable,” Flames forward Blake Coleman after facing the Blue Jackets on Friday. “It’s a human emotion to feel and to look up and see (Gaudreau’s banner). It’s no excuse for (losing) the game, but I will say that life comes before hockey and we will always think of, and honor, Johnny.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Blue Jackets, Calgary Flames to remember Johnny Gaudreau
