COLUMBUS, Ohio — The tragedy that took the life of Columbus Blue Jackets star winger Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, still doesn’t seem real. At an evening vigil outside Nationwide Arena on Friday, fans placed flowers, candy and candles in a makeshift memorial by the main entrance. A lonesome bagpipe wailed in the background.
It will be a long time before this blanket of grief lifts. And there will be tortuous reminders that Gaudreau is no longer with us, no longer doing what he did so well with the Blue Jackets — such as the start of training camp, the regular season, the NHL All-Star Game (he was a regular) and the Stadium Series game at Ohio Stadium.
Gaudreau’s locker — the fourth stall down the right wall of the Blue Jackets’ dressing room — will be hard to look at without conjuring memories.
Unfortunately, the Blue Jackets and their fans are familiar with this pain.
The Gaudreau brothers were killed late Thursday while riding bicycles on a country road in New Jersey. It was a senseless tragedy in which an allegedly aggressive driver, one being investigated for driving under the influence, slammed into their bikes while attempting to pass cars on a two-lane road, police said.
It came barely three years after promising, young goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks died at a Independence Day celebration at the home of then-goaltending coach Manny Legace in Novi, Mich. Kivlenieks, only 24, died when a firework misfired and struck him from close range in the chest.
The players had much of the summer to grieve Kivlenieks’ passing, a deeply personal process.
Still, when they arrived at training camp two and a half months later, there was almost a second wave of grief: several players said Kivlenieks’ absence shook them, even though they knew he wouldn’t be there.
“It was like something was missing,” one player said, “because someone was missing.”
Goaltender Elvis Merzlikins, who witnessed Kivlenieks’ death in Legace’s backyard, acknowledged a year later that the cannon in Nationwide Arena — it’s blasted before every game and after every goal and win — was an awful reminder of the blast that killed Kivlenieks.
The Blue Jackets helped arrange a funeral for Kivlenieks in central Ohio so that several players — both NHL and minor-leaguers who knew Kivlenieks as a teammate with AHL Cleveland — could attend. They paid to fly his parents to Columbus for the service.
On Oct. 14, 2022 — opening night — the Blue Jackets lifted Kivlenieks’ No. 80 jersey into the rafters of Nationwide Arena, where it remained for the entire season. His No. 91 was also painted on the ice behind both goals. It was an emotional night for many.
The Blue Jackets will have even less time to grieve Gaudreau, with the start of training camp set for Sept. 18 and the first on-ice day of camp the next day.
But the two cases have some sad similarities.
The Gaudreau brothers were planning to serve as groomsmen in sister Katie’s wedding, which had been scheduled for Friday. Kivlenieks’ death occurred just hours after the players attended the wedding of Legace’s daughter, Sabrina.
The Gaudreaus were biking on a road they’ve traveled countless times, not far from the home where their parents, Guy and Jane, raised them. They were the victims of another man’s alleged recklessness, sure, but they were also unfortunate to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Kivlenieks, meanwhile, was planning to return home to Latvia in early July that summer but was convinced by others to stay a few days longer to witness a July 4 celebration in person. He was stoked to be there.
Only a few players remain on the roster from when the Kivlenieks tragedy occurred, but several front-office members are still in place. In one sense, they can draw on their experiences in the wake of Kivlenieks’ passing to help them through this process.
Gaudreau’s loss will leave a crater in the dressing room. He was not only the Blue Jackets’ best player, but their leading scorer and a top-line left winger. He was also a revered figure in Columbus and across the NHL. He was “Johnny Hockey.”
The Blue Jackets have made an organizational decision to hunker down in the aftermath of Gaudreau’s passing, save for an initial statement and some highly emotional posts on social media from current and former Blue Jackets Boone Jenner, Patrik Laine and others.
A wave of Blue Jackets players were expected to arrive in Columbus early next week — a few players are already here — to get a head start on training camp. Now, they’ll almost certainly change plans to attend the Gaudreau brothers’ funeral.
The Blue Jackets and the NHL players’ association have made grief counselors available to any player, coach or staff member who wants to seek help.
One can only imagine what the Blue Jackets will have in store for Gaudreau when they play their first home game this season on Oct. 15 vs. Florida. It’s possible that Gaudreau’s No. 13 heads into the rafters, too.
The Blue Jackets’ franchise timeline is littered with an inordinate number of tragedies, and it started early in the organization’s history.
On March 16, 2002, a young fan — Brittanie Cecil — was struck by a puck during a game as she watched from the seats above the end zone glass. She was celebrating her 14th birthday, but suffered a seizure on her way home from the game and died two days later in Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
It’s the only fan fatality in NHL history, and it led to the addition of protective netting above the end boards glass throughout the league. Cecil would be 36 years old if she were alive today.
One year later, a Blue Jackets minor-league player — winger/enforcer Trevor Ettinger — died by suicide.
There is no playbook for how best to handle this. There are myriad players from many different cultures and with many different personalities in the dressing room. Each will be on their own pace.
The jobs of new GM Don Waddell and new coach Dean Evason just became much more difficult, not just on the ice but in the dressing room.
Waddell has been here before, too. In 2003, before the Atlanta Thrashers began their fifth season, a single-car crash in a car driven by Thrashers star Dany Heatley cost the life of his teammate, Dan Snyder, who died after six days in a coma.
It’s the kind of experience no GM wants on his resume. It’s the kind of experience no organization wants to endure. Yet, unfortunately for both Waddell and the Blue Jackets, it’s not unique.
(Photo of memorial outside of Nationwide Arena: Jason Mowry / Getty Images)