The Athletic Hockey Show - Remembering Johnny Gaudreau

Episode Date: August 30, 2024

Mark Lazerus, Aaron Portzline, and Hailey Salvian react to the tragic deaths of Columbus Blue Jackets winger Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew Gaudreau.Host: Mark LazerusWith: Aaron Portzline and Hailey SalvianExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Chris Flannery Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to the athletic hockey show on what has been just a devastating day for the hockey world and the sporting world at large. Earlier this morning, the Columbus Blue Jackets confirmed that Star Winger Johnny Godreau and his brother Matthew, a fellow Boston college alum, were killed last night while cycling. According to New Jersey State Police, the Goddrow brothers were hit by a Jeep Grand Cherokee while they were biking. The driver of the Jeep, 43-year-old Sean M. Higgins is being investigated for driving under the influence. He was arrested and charged with two counts of death by auto. Johnny was 31, Matthew was 29, and they were in town for their sister's wedding, which was scheduled for today. Johnny Goddrow was about to enter his third season with the Blue Jackets after eight superb seasons in Calgary. As I'm sure all of our listeners know, he was known as Johnny Hockey for not just his skill, but the flair and the joy and the creativity with which he played.

Won the 2014 Hobie Baker Award as college hockey's best player, won the 2017 Lady Bing for his combination of excellence in sportsmanship. at a career high 115 points just a couple years ago before signing a seven-year contract with the Blue Jackets, citing his desire to raise his family closer to his own family, which just kind of adds another layer to this really unthinkable tragedy. We're joined today by Aaron Portsline, our Blue Jackets writer and Haley Salvean, one of our national women's hockey writers who used to cover the Calgary Flames. Aaron, Haley, thanks for joining us. Sorry, it's under these conditions.

But just wanted to get your thoughts on Johnny the Plains. player, Johnny the man, Johnny the family man, and what Columbus is going through right now. It is utter devastation, I think. I think that goes for certainly the hockey community, the fans of the blue jackets, but I think those words probably apply to the most importantly to the Godreau family, who, as you mentioned last, just unthinkable. I mean, to lose two kids just like that in a way that they lost them. This was supposed to be an incredibly happy weekend

for the family. That is an incredibly tight-knit family. I mean, they are really bound together. Yeah, it's just, I keep I keep coming back as a parent, but really just a member of the human race. I don't know how you have to go forward. I don't know how you go forward. I don't know how you move on. You don't move on the same as you were.

That's for sure. The sense I get from everybody is that there's just a strong desire, even though people know that there's nothing they can do to do something to, to ease the burden even for a moment from the family because it's just staggering to think of what they're going through right now. Haley, you got to know the family a little bit in Calgary. Tell us a little about what you learned about them. Yeah.

So as you guys both mentioned, I mean, Johnny was a family man and that family was incredibly close. There was always the big Godreau family trips down. There was always, you know, Ghee and or Jane would come. at different times together or solo. But then there was always times when like the sisters and Matthew, like everyone would come down.

So I think being close and being together was always really important. You know, I got to know Jane and Gee, you know, decently well. Well, I was covering the flames and just writing about Johnny. And I mean, Johnny was one of the best players in the NHL when I was covering the Calgary Flames, you know, heart trophy, candidate, not that that really matters in the grand scheme of things. I always hate when tragedy happens and people try to bring up their stat line. But that's the context in which I got to know the family and trying to write stories and trying to understand like how did Johnny Goddrow become this guy.

And so much of it was tied to family and their upbringing. One story that always stood out to me from Gee was how when he was, Central Scouting came around and they would put hockey pucks in Johnny's jockstrap to try to weigh him down a little bit so we could be a bit heavier. And one of the big things When I was covering them and Johnny was in that conversation is they would always have these moments of like, you got to pinch me.

Like, he and Jane would look at each other. Me like, this can't be happening. Our son is, look at him. Like, look at how amazing he is. And then you see that Johnny Godreau on the ice. But then when he would come home, he was always just John. Nobody in his family actually called him Johnny. But nobody in the media would call him John either

because that's just weird. Like that he was Johnny Hockey to a lot of fans and media people, right? But when he would come home, he would, you know, he would just come home and be part of the family, so on the couch, hang out. And they're like, yep, that's just John. That's her son. And it's just so unimaginable to think about what Ghee and Jane are going through. I've been thinking about them a lot since some of the rumors started last night and his sisters. And there's so many people, I think, who were close to or felt impacted by Johnny, right? You think of Sean Monaghan who signed the Columbus Blue Jackets and was excited to play in Columbus

and have their kids be together. You think of his wife Meredith, their two children, Noah and Johnny, two under two, all the extended family. You think of Matthew's wife, Kevin Hayes. There's such a list all the way down to the fans in the Saddle Dome, who used to be touched and excited and enthralled. by Johnny Hockey every single day. There's just so many people who are so devastated by this.

But first and foremost, I'm just thinking of he and Jane and his sisters. They were wonderful people in my experience with them. Everyone I've talked to said they're wonderful people. And I just can't imagine what they're going through right now. And Johnny had two young children of his own. Every time you peel back another layer of this, it's just more and more devastating what the whole family is going through. He kind of caught a little bit of a flack when he went to Columbus,

when he left Calgary for Columbus. I don't think people understood all that we know about him now and how important being close to family is. Tell me a little bit about his decision to go to Columbus and what it's been like in those two seasons there for him. Yeah. Well, I think the best part is that Johnny Godroo pursued Columbus more than Columbus pursued Goodrow.

like they didn't even think it was a possibility. And honestly, when they first got word that Godreau would be interested to sign in Columbus, their initial response was, we're not driving up the price for New Jersey or Philly. We're not getting into that. Like, enough. Stop. And it took a couple more phone calls like, yes, yes.

This is where I would like, I think this is where I would like to be. So that that blew them away And really they were They were well in on a rebuild And this This player becomes available And suddenly change the plans Because what are you going to do?

Say no Especially after what this franchise's reputation had become With the departures of Bobrovsky and Panarin and these guys They became known as a place that people either didn't want to stay or would leave at the first chance they could. And so Goddreau, the most popular kid in school reaches out to them, and they're thinking it's not real at first. And then, of course, they're in on this. Let's go, hoping that it would change the reputation.

Yeah, the thing that he was always, what always struck me about Johnny and Haley can, I'm sure, has seen this for longer in a longer and up. closer than I did. There's an aura about him that he doesn't wish there to be. The young players look at him with so much awe and respect, especially the smaller ones. I would safely guess there are hundreds of kids in Columbus, Ohio, who are waiting on that growth spurt that may never come, who have decided that they can play hockey too, Because look at number 13 for the blue jackets, right? He could be really disarming to people who approached him with a sense of all. In a dressing room full of millionaires with guys wearing $800 sweatshirts and $2,000 pairs of shoes.

Grodro on an off day would have a T-shirt that probably should have been retired seven years ago. Some small business he was a fan of at deli or whatever. in Jersey or Philly, flip-flops, even in the wintertime. There was absolutely an aura about him, but I think he did his best to sort of not have that. He just wanted to be a regular guy, carried himself that way. That's an even bigger challenge in Canada, Haley, to do that. It's one thing to lie low in Columbus. What was his star power like in Calgary? Oh, it was huge. I mean, he was one of the big feature. I wrote about was examining, like, was this the best draft pick that the Calgary Flames ever made?

In terms of where they got him, what his impact ended up being, I mean, Johnny Godro and Sean Monaghan coming in when they did kind of change the course or the direction of where the team was going, right? Like those were two really big impact players. There's Johnny Godro jerseys everywhere. When he left, it was devastating. Fans were really, really upset. They were really, really mad. because they thought like he's going to be a forever flame, give him the sea. They would have named a street after him. Like they would have given Johnny Godreau whatever he wanted if he would have stayed. Like he would have been he.

I think the struggle with that was like I think he already had a legacy there. But like his legacy had he would have stayed would have just been, fans were just so obsessed with Johnny Goddrow. The star power was unbelievable. But what I think to Aaron's point, and to the previous point about family, like as important as hockey was to Johnny, like his family was even more important.

And I think that was the same here in Calgary, right? He wanted to be a really good player for the flames, but he wanted to have that balance in his life. And I just pulled this up what we were talking because Johnny did do a player's tribune piece after he left Calgary. And I think this kind of captures a lot of what we've been discussing he said or he wrote,

but as much as I love hockey, family is everything to me. It's the most important connection that I have. A few years ago, I think I started to realize how much you sacrifice when you give 100% to your career. I felt like I needed two more to center my family and my life after we experienced some hard times. My dad's heart attack in 2018 was a big moment for that. It was so bad and he's still lucky to be here today.

It was a scary situation. And seeing him in that hospital bed, it hit me extremely hard. I thought about how little I'd seen my parents since I'd been in the league in these moments and experiences change you as a person. And then the other moment was meeting Meredith, who he married in 2021. So we can see in this writing just how important family was to him and how he really did want to make that more of a focal point in his life. I feel like that's something fans lose sight of is just the time commitment that goes into a job like this. Nobody feels sorry for hockey players.

They're making millions of dollars that live in a high lifestyle. but it is from, you know, September till whenever the season ends, it is all consuming. You are in game day mode all day long. You're at the rink. You're working out. You're traveling all the time. You're gone all the time. It did seem that that weighed on Johnny more than it does on some other players.

Not to say other players don't feel that. A lot of them do. But he went and did something about it. He went and he moved closer to home. And it's just devastating. And, you know, Portie, this is, you know, there's time to worry about the high stuff down the road. Nobody cares about the hockey stuff right now. But this is the second time in three years and not even, that's not the only time, but the second time in three years that the

blue jackets are dealing with some kind of, you know, unimaginable tragedy. Three years ago, it was goalie Matisse Kivleni X, who died during a July 4th incident. How does a team come back from this? How does a team move forward after this? Well, I can tell you, even in 21, so Kivleniaks was not he'd spent a lot of time in that dressing room, but he was not an established NHL player at that point. And yet I think it really hit players kind of a second wave of grief, really, when they got to training camp and realized that someone wasn't there, that they felt should have been there. These are guys that are used to saying goodbye to people through trades and free agency and all this stuff. They certainly grieved his loss. Many of them attended his funeral.

But it was almost the second wave when training camp hit. I mean, this is going to be much the same, if not even more profound. It's closer to the start of the season. Most of the guys, my understanding is we're going to arrive in town Monday or Tuesday of next week. There's a lot of guys here already. And, you know, you really couldn't. be in that room. With, you know,

Gadreau was, whether he liked it or not, was kind of the sun that the rest of the room orbited around, though not the captain. But, yeah, I just,

I think there's going to be a profound status shock that resonates for, for a while. And it'll be different for each player, as grief is. It lands differently

with different people, but it will definitely be present and probably for some unshakable. Yeah, I mean, it's so early that we're, I don't think we can all even process how how massive this, this tragedy is. I mean, it's, you know, LeBron James is tweeting about it and it's the lead story on like CNN website right now. And this goes obviously beyond hockey and beyond sports for, you know, two, two healthy young men to kind of just be cut down in their prime.

It's, it's unthinkable. Aaron, Haley, I want to thank you for being on the show. obviously there's a lot to do today. So thanks for taking some time to kind of share your memories and your perspectives on Johnny. And yeah, all of our thoughts are with the Godreau family and what must just be an absolutely unfathomable, devastating moment for them.