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\u201cThis is for the guys who wore the jersey before us. Johnny Gaudreau especially,\u201d Dylan Larkin said.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Late USA Hockey GM) Jim Johannson, all those people should be here. Johnny especially. Matty, his brother. To get it done today, it\u2019s just an unbelievable feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been 18 months since Johnny and his brother, Matthew, were struck and killed by a drunk driver while biking the night before their sister was scheduled to be married. The grief still hasn\u2019t fully subsided. Not in the hockey community, which is so tightly knit, and not for this Team USA, on which so many players grew up in the sport alongside Gaudreau.<\/p>\n
Auston Matthews of the United States celebrates the win with the jersey of Johnny Gaudreau.Source: Getty ImagesThe family of the late Johnny Gaudreau. Photo by Elsa\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty ImagesTeam USA pose for group photo Johnny Gaudreau’s children. Photo by RvS.Media\/Monika Majer\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
No. 13 was front and center in their team photo. So were two of Johnny\u2019s kids, three-year-old Noa and two-year-old Johnny Jr., held by Zach Werenski and Larkin. Johnny Jr. turned two on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Johnny would have been on this team, should have been on this team. He played for Team USA at four World Championships and won gold with them at World Juniors in 2013. He was on the under-23 Team North America at the 2016 World Cup, and waited patiently to represent Team USA in best-on-best competition.<\/p>\n
So this was only right.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked about it,\u201d Werenski said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw them up there and we wanted to get the whole family on, but it was kind of hard with the gate, so we figured we\u2019d grab the kids. Special moment seeing Guy and Jane.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnny\u2019s parents, Guy and Jane Gaudreau, along with his wife, Meredith, got to Italy ahead of Friday\u2019s semifinal against Slovakia. Just like during the 4 Nations Face-Off final last year at TD Garden, fans chanted \u201cJohnny Hockey\u201d on Sunday in Italy. Except this time, it was after the game, during the celebration.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt meant everything,\u201d Werenski said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something John would have been at. And to see his family here supporting us and seeing his kids, bringing them on the ice \u2014 we talked about playing for him, making him proud and I think we did that.\u201d<\/p>\n
All tournament long, they were playing for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s had a big impact on a lot of guys in our room,\u201d captain Auston Matthews said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of guys grew up with him. Played with him. Spent a lot of time with him, whether that\u2019s the NHL or World Championships, different settings like that. We had his jersey in our room last year in 4 Nations, had his jersey in the room here at the Olympics. Just a subtle reminder that him and his brother are with us in spirit.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to get it done like that, to win, to have his jersey out there in the team photo, have his kids come out and be with us. We\u2019re obviously thinking of him. Just felt the impact he\u2019s had on so many guys in this room is special. He was with us in spirit the whole tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article originally appeared on the New York Post<\/a> and was reproduced with permission<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johnny Gaudreau\u2019s sweater was finally taken out of Team USA\u2019s dressing room on Sunday. It had to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-498998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}