I don’t like reporting this, but NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti attended the Gaudreau brothers’ funeral on Monday, and so did the Red Wings’ captain:
St. Mary Magdalen’s was filled with family, friends and mourners from around the hockey world, including NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHL Players’ Association executive director Marty Walsh. The Blue Jackets had a contingent of 60 players and staff, headed by general manager Don Waddell and coach Dean Evason.
The Flames were represented by president of hockey operations Don Maloney, general manager Craig Conroy and players Mikael Backlund, Blake Coleman and Rasmus Andersson. Former Flames GM Brad Treliving (now GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs) and former Flames president of hockey operations Brian Burke (now executive director of the Professional Women’s Hockey League Players’ Association) also were attendance along with Boston Bruins coach Jim Montgomery, who coached Johnny with Dubuque in the United States Hockey League, Philadelphia Flyers president of hockey operations Keith Jones and Flyers coach John Tortorella.
The mourners also included Johnny’s former Flames teammates Matthew Tkachuk (now with the Florida Panthers), Sam Bennett (Panthers), TJ Brodie (Chicago Blackhawks), Jacob Markstrom (New Jersey Devils) and Chris Tanev (Maple Leafs) and former Blue Jackets teammate Patrik Laine (Montreal Canadiens). Laine was joined by Canadiens president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton, coach Martin St. Louis, Canadiens players Cole Caufield, Cayden Primeau and Mike Matheson, Seth Jones and Connor Murphy of the Blackhawks and Dylan Larkin of the Detroit Red Wings.
“It just shows the true honor and respect that everybody gave them,” said Caufield, who announced last week he is changing his number to 13 to honor Johnny Gaudreau. “Just can’t imagine what they’re going through. Just the amount of people that are here today and yesterday, just anything we can do to help.”
Continued; the North American hockey world may consist of a couple thousand professional players in the U.S. and Canada, but it’s a tight fraternity.
At this point, all we can do is hope that the Gaudreau family knows that the entire hockey world is ready to support them when they’re ready for us to do so.
