The family called him John. It is not John Gaudreau Played for the Boston College that he picked up the nickname “Johnny Hockey” which followed him for 11 seasons in the NHL.
His mother, Jane, happily remembered “Johnny Hockey” t-shirts and song songs of the BC song granted their beloved magician on the ice.
At home in New Jersey, the older brother Matthew, who also played hockey for the Boston College, and the Sisters Kristen and Katie could not help teasing their brother with the nickname while his popularity and his career in the stars grew up through stops in Calgary and Columbus.
The Calgary Matthew Tkachuk Flames striker, on the right, celebrates his goal with teammate Johnny Gaudreau during the third NHL period in the second round of hockey playoffs in Calgary, Alberta, Wednesday, May 18, 2022.
The Canadian press / Jeff McIntosh
Take one night during the In the NHL Rewards in Las Vegas, only one family story on thousands of favorites, when Gaudreau tried to keep a low public profile on a family outing. Katie did not have it on the band, shouting so that everyone hears: “Johnny! Johnny Hockey!”
“I can see John’s face becoming reder and redder,” said Jane Gaudreau, laughing. “You walk in the street and no one knows who you are until Katie begins to do this great thing.”
Everything was fine for the family when they gathered last August for Katie’s wedding. John and Matt were the boys of honor and Kristen the young lady of honor. What happened next, the typhoon of shock and sorrow that struck New Jersey in the heart of the hockey community, has been well documented in the past eight months.
At night before marriage, John, 31, and Matt, 29, died after being struck by an alleged drunk driver while bicycle in the country of Delaware River south of Philadelphia, leaving a family forever broken, with no enough time to completely collect all the pieces.
They try.
From births to tributes to hockey, through the Instagram pages dotted with photos of the family album and a new foundation, to an effort to collect background playground at the beloved family school, the Gaudreaus crossed the dark days when even getting out of bed seemed impossible.
They come together, come together, just as they did as a six -year family in South Jersey, and try to focus on a simple mantra: living their lives as much as possible in honor of Matt and John.
There are more difficulties to come and the dark days will come and go. The driver accused of having killed the brothers, a man of prosecutors described as a history of alleged road rage and aggressive driving, is still judged.
But as Jane Gaudreau details her dream from a new adaptive playground for special education students from the school where she works, it is the good times that arouse the most memories.
The stories go up the spirits of Jane, the husband and countless friends and teammates who have gone through their first hockey season for decades without two men who have given so much their growing families and the game.
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“It’s great to keep their memories alive,” said their sister, Kristen Venello, who is shaking her Blue Jackets hooded sweatshirt as a word at the Damiano school in the Archbishop.
“It’s sad. But you think of all the good things they have done and that’s what you can think of. And how much they can help us. ”
The project
Archbishop Damiano School was founded in 1968 for children with Down syndrome and now provides services to 125 students with special needs from 3 to 21 years old. Jane Gaudreau’s brother attended school and their mother worked there for 44 years.
Jane was hired in 1984 and is still a financial associate. Kristen, the eldest daughter, taught school for almost two decades. Katie used to help with the children when she could and the two boys of Gaudreau volunteered at school when they did not play hockey.
In death, they can perhaps leave a permanent heritage in Damiano outside the family and hockey.
Kelsie Snow lost her husband, Chris, former deputy director general of the Calgary flames, in 2023 to Lou Gehrig’s disease. She called Jane with a suggestion on how to sail in life through perpetual sorrow: keep yourself. Find a project. Jane and Guy kissed the idea and looked for the good, until they realized that the answer was there at Archbishop Damiano.
The Gaudreaus and the staff of Archbishop Damiano have embarked on fundraising for a modern playground that allows everything, from basic wheelchair accessibility to ramps and transfer platforms for students.
The Gaudreau 5K family, which is on May 31, should provide liquidity necessary for the initiative launched by director Michele McCloskey in 2020.
Jane Gaudreau, mother of the hockey players Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau who were fatally struck by a motorist while he was cycling, posed for a photograph at the Archbishop Damiano School in Westville, NJ, Wednesday April 9, 2025.
AP photo / Matt Rourke
“I know the boys would be proud of us,” said Jane.
“The two boys loved children, which is why we thought the playing field would be perfect.”
The Gaudreaus have another more lasting project in front of them as adored grandparents. The two widows have given birth since the death of their husband. Meredith, who revealed during her praise in tears for John in August that she was pregnant, gave birth in April to the third child of the couple, Carter Michael Gaudreau. Madeline delivered it and Matty’s first baby, Tripp Matthew Gaudreau, in December.
Jane laughs when she describes how much new additions look like their fathers. Tripp has clear hair like her father; Carter looks like Big Sister Noa, and they both look like John.
“My husband continues to say this,” said Jane, “” I think God sent us Jean and Matty. “”
The upcoming road
Guy and Jane, were married 42, almost never left dinner, overwhelmed by feelings of guilt to have fun, and these emotions are also deep with Katie. She said to her mom, yes, she wanted to marry her fiancé, Devin Joyce, but was not sure that a big marriage was the way to follow. Jane said that she just told her that there was no bad decision, but to let the rage and the sadness settle and take as much time as necessary to make a decision.
The couple finally postponed their marriage for July 11. Katie wrote on her Instagram post: “I suppose that this year taught me to celebrate our love every day, every minute.”
“You know the boys, they will be there with us that day,” said Jane. “They would like you to have fun.”
Jane has resolved: “This guy has already removed two of the most important things from us. Do not let him remove your wedding.”
Inheritance
The 5K has completed its allowance with 1,000 runners for the day of the race in a New Jersey park, but anyone can contribute to home as a virtual participant. More than 700 people have already registered, from New Jersey to Canada via Ireland, eager to help the cause, which includes an online auction which extends beyond hockey, with all the benefits given to the effort of play and its objective of $ 600,000.
The current playground does not meet the needs of its students in its current form, there are gaping holes in the lawn and swings and the slides have not been designed for disabled children. If the objective is reached, the school hopes to innovate this fall and finish the project next spring.
It seems trivial to call him a silver lining, but the family looked in vain to find meaning, a good death.
Sean Monahan, to the left of Columbus Blue Jackets, on the left, and Mikael Backlund by Calgary Flames join Johnny Gaudreau’s family at Center Ice before the first NHNH hockey period in Calgary on Tuesday, December 3, 2024.
The Canadian press / Jeff McIntosh
So they will run.
For John. For Matt. For a cause, boys are so robustly supported in life.
“This is not the way I would like to build the playground, of course,” said Jane. “I tend to believe that they will be up there, being able to listen to the laughter of children.
“They will really love the fact that children will have a playground to play.”
