Today is supposed to be a day of celebration of the American worker, but for three days, I’ve been laboring to comprehend something else entirely: the grief of the Gaudreau family of Carneys Point, N.J. They had big plans for what would be as joyous a Labor Day weekend as a family can have. Parents Guy and Jane were going to celebrate the wedding of their daughter, Katie, on Friday. Theirs sons and Katie’s brothers, Johnny and Matthew, were going to be two of the groomsmen. Their granddaughter, Johnny’s daughter, Noa, who turns two next month, was going to be the flower girl.
Johnny (far r.) and Matt Gaudreau (c.) were going to be groomsmen for sister Katie (second from r.) on Friday.
If you follow the NHL, and maybe even if you don’t, you probably know the family name, and Johnny Gaudreau’s name in particular. Johnny Hockey was his universal nickname, and why not? He was of the most dazzlingly skillful players you will ever see, a virtuoso forward for the Columbus Blue Jackets whose small body belied his outsized talent. Before he became an NHL All-Star he helped Boston College win a national championship and captured the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey’s best player. Matt was a couple of years behind him at BC and went onto his own pro career before becoming a coach.
The Gaudreaus are a hockey family to the core. Guy Gaudreau grew up in Beebe Plain, Vermont, a place so far north that one side of the main street is in Canada, the other half in the U.S. Guy became a standout player and coach who relocated to south Jersey, where he managed a rink and coached his sons at Gloucester Catholic High School. Even Katie’s fiancé, Devin Joyce, is a hockey player. They rehearsed the ceremony on Thursday and the wedding was all set for Friday afternoon, and it all seemed perfect until Johnny and Matt went for a bike ride in rural Oldmans Township that evening.
They never came back.
Now the Gaudreau family tries to somehow find a way forward, their joyous weekend having turned into a tragedy of unimaginable scope, a wedding supplanted by two funerals. Johnny was 31 years old. Matthew was 29. Besides Noa, Johnny and his wife, Meredith, also have a six-month old son, Johnny. Matt and his wife, Madeline, have a baby on the way. Two young women are widows and three kids will never know their father – because of an accident that police say was caused by an allegedly drunk driver who admitted to having five or six beers and then got behind the wheel of his SUV with another one in hand.
The driver’s name is Sean Higgins, 43, of Woodstown, N.J. He is an officer in the New Jersey Army National Guard and an employee of a rehab center. He was charged with two counts of vehicular homicide, along with reckless driving and operating a motor vehicle with an open container. According to police, he was trying to pass two vehicles on County Rd. 551 when he slammed into the brothers’ bicycles a little after 8 p.m. Thursday night. They were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, some 30 miles south of Philadelphia. There is now a makeshift memorial at the site that includes hockey sticks and flowers.
I drove a couple of hundred miles this holiday weekend, and at least a dozen times came across posted messages on highways that said “Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over,” or “Don’t Drive Drunk. It’s the Law.” Nobody who drinks and drives ever thinks they are impaired, or that anything terrible will happen. No doubt Sean Higgins never planned on facing homicide charges while rushing to get wherever he was going.
Sean Higgins will remain in Salem County Jail until a hearing on Sept. 5. How the Gaudreau families will get through their coming days, and weeks, and years, is much less certain. I met Johnny Gaudreau his freshman year at BC and spent a good amount of time with him. He showed up wearing baggy sweats and probably weighed 140 pounds. He looked like he needed a meal. This can’t possibly be one of the elite players in college hockey, I thought, but then I watched how he skated and the magic he could do with his stick and his hands, and I understood.
What struck me most about Johnny Hockey, though, was the joy he exuded when he played. It all but poured out of him, as palpable as the No. 13 on his sweater. He and BC went on to win a national championship that year, and a fairy tale of a hockey life would take him to Calgary and then Columbus, the legend of Johnny Hockey growing with each year. He had a big contract and a lovely young family, and when he went out for a bike ride with Matt, not just his brother but his best friend, the night before Katie’s wedding, nobody could’ve imagined that the fairy tale would end on the side of Route 551. I feel compelled to post the story I wrote about Johnny Hockey 11 years ago. I’m not even sure why. Maybe it’s to my own way to process the sadness I feel. Or maybe it’s to reconnect with that joy he had, and gave to so many others, when he played.
RIP, Johnny and Matt Gaudreau.
Johnny (r.) and Matt celebrating an NCAA title during their BC days
https://www.nydailynews.com/2013/03/12/new-jerseys-johnny-gaudreau-is-turning-into-a-shining-star-for-goal-crazy-boston-college/
Beautiful and heartbreaking, Wayne. Thank you for posting this.
Here in Boston, a mile or two from Boston College, and just sobbing. Nothing else can be done.