Gaudreau family almost didn’t make the trip to Milan.<\/p>\n
PublishedFebruary 28, 2026 4:40 PM EST\u2022UpdatedFebruary 28, 2026 4:23 PM EST<\/p>\n
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One of the best and most emotional moments following the overtime win over Canada by Team USA men’s hockey was how the team honored Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew. The brothers were tragically killed in 2024 after a drunk driver struck them while they were riding their bicycles the night before their sister\u2019s wedding.<\/p>\n
Watching Team USA stars Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk, and Zach Werenski proudly carry “Johnny Hockey’s” jersey<\/a>, which they hung up in their locker room every game throughout the Olympics, brought a tear to my eye. And all while his family was also teary-eyed as they looked on from the stands.<\/p>\n In response to these kind gestures by Team USA, the Gaudreau family released a statement on X:<\/p>\n “John loved representing his country. From the time he was little, he dreamed of competing at the Olympics\u2026 They are carried by so many people \u2014 in locker rooms, in conversations, in quiet moments we will never even know about. That means everything to us\u2026 When Zach, Auston, and Matthew carried John’s jersey around that ice, we were overwhelmed \u2014 they made sure he was there.”<\/p>\n Honestly, I’m even tearing up writing this right now. It\u2019s incredible that the Gaudreau family went from not wanting to go to Milan to seeing Johnny’s jersey carried on the ice after securing the gold medal. An absolutely beautiful moment we should never forget. Adding to the emotional enormity of the situation is the fact that his children, 3-year-old Noa and 2-year-old Johnny Jr., were taken onto the ice for a team photo<\/a>.<\/p>\n “And then to see Noa and Johnny \u2014 on Johnny’s second birthday \u2014 carried out onto the ice to be part of that gold medal photo \u2014 there are no words for what that felt like,” said the Gaudreau family.<\/p>\n Just like Team USA, Johnny loved “representing his country.” This team knew that the gold medal game, and the tournament in its entirety, was more than just the pursuit of a historic milestone for their country. It was for their fallen teammate, his brother, his wife, their kids, and the entire Gaudreau family.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some things are bigger than sports. This is a prime example.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gaudreau family almost didn’t make the trip to Milan. PublishedFebruary 28, 2026 4:40 PM EST\u2022UpdatedFebruary 28, 2026 4:23…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":496597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-496596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=496596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/496596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=496596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=496596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=496596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}