A year-and-a-half since the deaths of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, the U.S. men's hockey team celebrated gold with them in mind. Dylan Larkin even mused that they were there spiritually on the ice during some close moments.
MILAN, Italy - As Team USA celebrated its first men's hockey Olympic gold medal since the Miracle on Ice in 1980, they did so with the Gaudreaus in mind.
As the Americans celebrated, captain Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk and Zach Werenski skated around the ice with a Team USA Johnny Gaudreau jersey in their hands. And when they took a team photo with gold medals around their necks, Werenski and Dylan Larkin held two of Johnny Gaudreau's kids, three-year-old Noa and two-year-old Johnny Jr., in their arms.
"It meant everything," Werenski said. "Having the jersey out there, having his kids out on the ice for the picture, seeing his family in the stands, it means everything. We wanted to make him proud, and we did it."
It has been a year-and-a-half since Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau were killed by a suspected drunk driver on the eve of their sister's wedding, and the hockey world has not forgotten the pair. Johnny, of course, had extensive experience with USA Hockey's national squad.
"What he means to our entire team and USA Hockey – we miss him and Matty so dearly," said Brady Tkachuk. "He would have been on this team, and he has touched everyone on the ice's lives. We wanted to show the Gaudreau family our support, and we did it for them."
Auston Matthews, Zach Werenski and Matthew Tkachuk hold up Johnny Gaudreau's Team USA jersey, which the national team has kept with it at the Olympics, World Championship and 4 Nations Face-Off. (Amber Searls-Imagn Images)Dylan Larkin even went so far as to muse that the Gaudreaus were spiritually on the ice for Team USA during some of those scrambly moments when Canada just couldn't get the puck into the net, even when the stellar Connor Hellebuyck was prone.
"(Johnny) was doing something, standing there laughing with Matty," he said. "Somehow they put a spell around our net where that puck didn't go in. Which is ironic, because it was on the defensive side, and he never would have been back there."
It's a great chirp that Gaudreau himself would have loved, but his impact on American hockey and the lives of those who knew him simply cannot be understated.
"It's more than the game," said J.T. Miller. "He would have been on this team and been a huge part of it. That's a guy I grew up playing with and against and knew pretty well. It just sucks, you know? He deserved better, and he had a big part in how things went down today. We're going to celebrate him as long as we can."
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