In the two weeks since we lost Johnny and Matt Gaudreau, tributes and memories have poured in from all over the world. The beautiful words and remembrances of teammates, broadcasters, fans, and friends have helped crystallize their legacies as players and as men, and have brought some comfort during a time of profound sadness. There’s not much more I can say to add to what’s been said about the Gaudreau brothers, and the impact they made on so many people.
But I can’t help but try to put into words just what the Gaudreaus meant to Boston College, and why so many of us within the BC hockey fan community feel like we lost family members of our own, and remain in a state of grief and shock – and why finding the right words feels nearly impossible.
My BC roommate and longtime friend Grant Salzano’s words rattled around my brain in the days after the tragedy: “I don’t even really know what to say. Both brothers brought me so much joy. Unspeakably devastated thinking of their sisters, parents, family. That’s the worst part.”
They brought us joy. That’s really what I think about when I think of the Gaudreaus. They brought so much joy. To some extent this is what you can say about all great entertainers and athletes. But the joy the Gaudreaus – all of them – brought to BC fans went deeper than that.
It’s not just that Johnny Gaudreau was a transcendent hockey player, who made plays that defied belief, and brought hardware home to the Heights. He was the capstone player of the greatest era any team has ever experienced in the history of college hockey; an undersized speedy forward who dazzled with skill, seemingly perfecting a prototype that worked for BC for over a decade. He stayed at BC for three years to play alongside his brother despite pro contract offers, and left BC with Jerry York’s dream of “a ring on one hand and a diploma in the other.” He delivered everything you could ask for as a BC fan.
It wasn’t just these things, though they’re certainly all a part of it.
And it’s not just that Matt was such a special player in his own right; a kid and a story you absolutely loved rooting for, as he climbed the ladder from healthy scratch, to occasional skater, to bottom six energy player, to, as a senior, being the co-leading scorer on a young team that benefited greatly from his senior leadership.
As much as college sports have changed through the years, it’s still one of the beautiful things about following the college game that you can root along with a career journey like Matt’s, and watch someone like him blossom over four years on campus.
But it wasn’t just the results, the stats, the trophies and the accolades that made the Gaudreaus so meaningful to BC. It was the way they played and carried themselves, the pride with which they represented the school – and, importantly, the way the entire Gaudreau family became fixtures of the BC community, for six memorable years.
Johnny and Matt were special players to watch for BC fans, but beyond that, we truly all came to love the entire family. Their love and joy for their sons shined through in every televised interview with them, both in happier times, and now. It came through visibly and audibly in rinks across Hockey East, where for six seasons from 2011 to 2017, whenever a Gaudreau was playing, it was an ironclad guarantee multiple members of their family would be there, cheering them on.
With the traveling fanbase for BC hockey being a fairly small and tight knit community, you get to know the other regulars in the away section, with of course most of them being family. Being fortunate enough to sit near them on dozens of occasions, it was hard not to just absolutely love the Gaudreaus. Coming from a big, boisterous, loud and loving Italian family, I saw a lot of my own family in theirs – with cousins and aunts and uncles rotating in and out alongside the fixtures of the brothers’ parents and sister, decked out in team colors, cheering their hearts out.
They weren’t just a wonderful and supportive and joyful presence – they also came through as so humble and salt-of-the-earth, even as Johnny became a nationally renowned superstar.
As Johnny’s star grew, they continued to invite everyone in to share in the joy. I have fond memories of them always getting a kick out of seeing so many fans in Johnny Hockey and Gaudreaubey Baker shirts, or holding up signs supporting him, or kids going crazy over the chance to give him a high five coming on to the ice. They never seemed to lose the sense of wonder that came with Johnny’s emergence as a star, or seem fazed at all by the attention. It is easy to see why the Gaudreau brothers are remembered by all as being so loving, humble, and kind – it’s reflective of the entire family.
When thinking back on the joyful memories of the Gaudreaus at BC, it’s hard to think of where to start.
Johnny Gaudreau was an artist on the ice; a wizard; someone even opposing fans would pay to watch, and who would stand out to you even if you’d never seen a hockey game in your life.
The way Johnny Gaudreau played had a special geometry to it – he found angles that didn’t seem to exist to make mind-blowing passes or dangle through opponents. When he carried the puck with speed through the neutral zone and stared down a defenseman (or two), it almost felt like seeing any other player come in on a clean break, because you knew no defender was going to stop him one on one. At a place where we’ve been blessed to watch so many incredible players, he truly stood out, not just for his skill, but for the magic of his game, and how he’d do things you simply never saw anyone do before.
Johnny Gaudreau made the impossible seem possible, such that you simply couldn’t count him out, be it during an individual play, or in a game itself. When BC scored with just seconds left in the 2014 national semifinal to pull within one goal of Union, it felt pretty impossible that they could win a faceoff, break into the zone and tie the game within a matter of seconds, but Johnny made you feel like they could do it – and even just coming so close is a memory those of us who watched it live will never forget.
Johnny’s ascent also treated BC fans to collective experiences that we’ll cherish forever. There was, of course, his iconic clinching goal in the 2012 NCAA title game – a play that will long be remembered as possibly the greatest in BC sports history.
But there was more to come after that. Seeing Johnny turn heads all around the hockey world during the 2013 World Juniors, helping carry the US to a then-rare gold medal, was such a joy, and BC fans will long remember the experience of waking up at 4 or 5 AM to watch those games and root on our star from Chestnut Hill as he took on the world.
His run to the Hobey Baker Award in 2014 featured video game numbers – a staggering 80 points in 40 games. A highlight reel of his goals would have to show just about all 36 of them.
The absolute domination of the Gaudreau/Arnold/Hayes line in their NCAA tournament opener against Denver was one of the most impressive BC performances of all time, racking up 6 goals as a line in the first 36 minutes of the game. You couldn’t help but laugh in awe of how one line could be so dominant against one of the best programs in college hockey.
After Johnny went to the NHL, so many of us who watched his journey through the college game couldn’t help but get excited to stay up late and watch his debut for Calgary – and of course, he scored. He was and always would be a kid out of BC to all of us – but to the hockey world, he was now a superstar.
And then there was Matt. Matt Gaudreau, put simply, is the kind of player and the kind of story you absolutely love rooting for.
After a freshman year mostly spent out of the lineup, he became a regular as a sophomore, putting up 6 points in 32 games for a team that struggled to score after losing so much firepower from the 2014 team.
As a junior, he made the next step – putting up 21 points, and taking on a larger than expected role on the team after the early-season departure of Jeremy Bracco, the team’s star recruit.
Just days after that dramatic departure, Gaudreau scored one of the most memorable goals in all of my years of attending games at BC, one of pure heart and determination to knock home a game winner against Denver, bring down the house, and show BC fans that the Eagles were still a contender. They would go on to win the Beanpot and go to the Frozen Four, and Matt was vital to both accomplishments.
The 2016-17 team, in Matt Gaudreau’s senior year, oddly is one that I remember as fondly as just about any BC team, despite the fact that they came up just short of making the NCAA tournament. After the 2016 Frozen Four, BC was hit by a historic number of early departures to the pros – signaling the end of an era in so many ways; the end of a run of nearly annual Frozen Four appearances, and the end of the era even at BC of a critical mass of great players staying in college for 3 or 4 years. The game had changed.
The ‘16-17 Eagles rolled into the season with limited expectations and, by BC standards, not much star power; Colin White and Casey Fitzgerald were the only two future NHL fixtures on the roster, and the team carried 13 freshmen and 6 sophomores.
Despite this, they put together a 21 win season, and shook off a late season losing streak to go on a memorable run to the Hockey East final, including a shocking 3-2 victory at TD Garden over a star-studded BU team. A last-second shot in the Hockey East final that rattled off the crossbar was all that separated this team from a potential tournament appearance.
And at the center of it all was Matt Gaudreau, who co-led the team in scoring with 35 points. From the fringes of the roster, to the heart of a contending team, Gaudreau’s journey was so special to watch as a fan – made more special by the fact that the Gaudreau family was, by this point, so synonymous with BC hockey.
It feels a little self-indulgent to talk about my own memories as a fan here, but I kind of can’t help it – the relationship we all have as fans with our teams and fellow fans is personal, and that’s what makes sports… sports.
Fandom is an odd thing if you think about it too much. We all develop such deep attachments to people we hardly know. The outpouring of flowers, cards, gatorade and skittles outside of rinks in Calgary, Columbus and Boston show how powerful this attachment can be for tens or even hundreds of thousands of people. To me, this attachment comes from not only how we admire people like the Gaudreaus, but also how we remember what the memories they created meant to us at different stages of our lives.
The Gaudreaus defined BC hockey for me during a time that spanned from being 24 years old and two years out of BC, when college students are still kind of your peers; to being 30 and approaching the point where you start to see the players as kids, and you start to feel a sort of familial fondness toward them.
The ‘12, ‘14 and ‘16 teams continuing a dynastic run for BC, and the ‘17 team being one that was so easy to love and root for, helped cement what will be a lifelong passion for BC hockey. It was also during the time I was writing for/editing this website, and Johnny Gaudreau’s highlight reel and the memories he and Matt created helped grow this little community and bring us together with fans all over the country, forging long-time friendships.
College hockey is an oddity: it’s big enough to make front page news, but it’s ultimately still small and tight-knit. This is part of the appeal for those of us who love the game. It’s kind of an odd thing to think about the fact that we watched a future massive, beloved superstar play in a tiny rink on the campus of Merrimack College, or under the leaky roof of a decades-old barn at Brown University, or in front of a smattering of fans for a Tuesday night game, while also seeing him play under the bright lights in front of 16,000+ at the Beanpot and the Frozen Four.
But this is all part of what forges the connection for all of us, and makes the sport so special. It’s also part of why watching BC players go on to great heights in the pros brings such joy and pride to all of us who love the program.
For six years, BC fans watched the Gaudreau brothers, in their own very different ways, grow and emerge before our eyes, into better versions of themselves, as players and as people.
For better or for worse, I’m a very sentimental person, which means I save a lot of trinkets and mementos, which I often regret, because I end up accumulating way too much stuff. But I’ve been grateful for that in recent weeks, as I’ve looked through programs, game notes, shirts and giveaway items highlighting the Gaudreau years at BC. They’ve brought me back to such wonderful moments, ones I’ll always be grateful to have witnessed.
For those of us who maybe take them a little too seriously, sports have a way of making this kind of an impact, delivering the same kind of feeling a great song or artist or performance can – the feeling of frisson, a certain kind of reaction in your brain that gives you goosebumps; that brings you back to a time, a place, and a memory.
In the same way a certain verse or guitar solo or riff can carry me back to high school or to my childhood home, seeing Johnny’s championship-clinching goal in 2012 brings me back to the feeling I had being on Grant’s couch (I was 24, and too broke to go to the Frozen Four), going berserk, hugging my best friend, and feeling just about the highest high you can experience as a sports fan.
Seeing a clip of Matt Gaudreau’s game-winner against Denver takes me back to being in the upper deck (section OO) at Conte Forum, celebrating the goal like crazy, then beaming with pride when realizing it was Matt’s stick that last got to the puck, because there was nobody you wanted to see succeed more than him.
Seeing a Johnny Hockey shirt brings me back to the magic of the Hobey year, of having our minds blown week after week by Johnny’s seemingly endless bag of tricks – and, just as importantly, of sharing this joy with a community of friends, classmates, and fellow Eagles.
That’s why we’re fans. Moments like those burn into your memory forever, and build lifelong connections to your friends, to your family, to your school, and, of course, to your favorite players.
The Gaudreau brothers delivered so many of these special moments for BC fans, while also being the best representatives of the school anyone could ask for. It was just an absolute joy to have them be part of the BC community, and they will forever be fondly remembered and dearly missed.
The memories of watching the Gaudreau family cheer on Johnny and Matt for six years at BC are so strong and so joyful that it is particularly painful to think about what they are going through during this horrible time. It’s the faces of their parents and sister and cousins and aunts and uncles that we associate with the Gaudreau years as much as the players themselves, and we’ll be thinking of them and wishing for their peace and comfort.
If it could ever one day become even the slightest consolation amidst unimaginable grief, I hope the Gaudreaus know how much joy their sons brought to so many people at BC, and how powerful memories of their time on the Heights simply can not be diluted by tragedy, nor by the passing of time. They were more than great players – they were people Boston College could not be prouder to call two of our own, and their memories will always be a blessing.