NHL - Hockey World Mourns Loss of Gaudreau Brothers in Senseless Tragedy

[Music] welcome to the sports note for Tuesday September 3rd hope everyone had a great Labor Day unfortunately uh it's a sports note I really did not want to have to do and if anybody caught uh the wi Sky Sports show uh this past Saturday night you know that we let off with this and that unfortunately is the untimely unfortunate um tragic and unnecessary passings of both Matthew and Johnny cadro um both were killed by a by an alleged drunk driver back on a very late Thursday afternoon into Thursday evening uh in their Hometown in New Jersey where they were in town for their sister's wedding and were slated to be groomsmen uh the report is that um Sean Higgins a 43-year-old man uh was later arrested on two counts of vehicular homicide while under the suspicion of drunk driving uh his arraignment is actually slated for this coming Thursday the 5th uh and he was a he was a decorated major in the United States Army and worked in a rehab center um where it was also reported that Higgins had quote five to six drinks before getting behind the wheel um and was trying to pass slower traffic on the right hand side of the road and wound up basically going up the back of Johnny and Matthew uh who were riding their bikes um in the uh in the neighborhood whether they were doing it for a workout or casual or just you know blowing off time uh you know the night before their sister's wedding um nobody's really going to to know and we actually have not heard um Katy nor either of the of the spouses confirm that um and nor quite honestly is any sort of bearing on this case whatsoever um but he went up the back of both of their bikes resulting in fatal injuries whether they were run over whether they had you know stopped and fall whether it was the impact uh that information is still coming out there were also several reports that um several unconfirmed reports that Higgins was very upset that he was going to be held over for the better part of a week as this had occurred on Thursday he was arrested on Friday um and was not going to be able to be processed until the following business day meaning he had to sit there the entire holiday weekend it's a mandatory uh it's a mandatory either 48 or 72 hour processing period uh for being held for something of this nature which means he's not going to see uh he's not going to be released even if he makes bail um by Thursday but again just a completely unnecessary uh issue that um here was Johnny gdo going into the third year of a very lucrative contract uh it was a 7year 68.2 five million deal that he signed with Columbus in the summer of 2022 uh after kind of turning the hockey world on its ear now Matthew played Seven Seasons professionally spent several years within the New York Islanders farm system played I want to say at least three uh parts of three seasons with the Bridgeport sound Tigers their AHL affiliate uh Johnny was a fourth round pick number 101 overall in 2011 by the Calgary Flames uh played his first NHL game after finishing his senior season at Boston College uh where he was a two-time hockey East Player of the Year and also scored a goal uh in his sophomore campaign in the national championship game which Boston College won uh he was a former uh he was a member of a bean poot Tournament champion uh um BC team which is a very prestigious uh trophy in the Northeast for NCAA hockey um gdo then uh he signs a three-year 5.5 million entry-level contract uh for the 2013 through 2015 season uh campaigns with the Flames signs a six-year 40.5 million extension in 2016 uh and then after the 2021 season ends uh you figure you know what's what's going to happen with with gdo after the 2021 22 uh season comes to a close and there were a lot of people thinking that Gad wanted to go back home and play for either the Rangers the Islanders or uh or his home state Devils well the Devils didn't have the cap space the Rangers didn't have the cap space and the Islanders were coming fresh off of a very deep playoff run and had the cap space base uh and this was even before I want to say this was just before the acquisition of Bo Horvath um as a matter of fact I want to say that that's that there's some truth to that um because they took a swing on on acquiring Horvath when they missed out on Johnny garro and he signs again that that three-year that I'm sorry that 7-year 30 uh 68.2 five million deal which pays him about 95 million annually um and then the thought of immediately became if you're a Blue Jackets fan what happens with Patrick l who you got in a massive uh trade just the year before for uh JP Dubois um so they decide to R Columbus decides to run with both of them it does not work out well the Blue Jackets finish at the bottom of the Eastern Conference both of those seasons and line was traded to Montreal about two weeks ago uh for draft picks and Columbus was going to put a lot of stock into running Gad out there with last year's number three overall selection Adam fanelli who had himself a very very good rookie season finished uh he was a finals for the Calder Trophy which eventually went to uh Conor bard of the Chicago Blackhawks um but unfortunately now this means that this is going to be $9.5 Million worth of cap space uh for the Blue Jackets who now have more than 26 million in cap space but it is the absolute last thing that any Columbus Blue Jacket fan or NHL fan or cap monitoring fan uh would ever ever want to think about Johnny Gad had 243 goals and 500 assists for uh for 743 points in 763 regular season games between Calgary and Columbus his best season was the 2021-22 campaign uh his final in calary where he scored 40 goals 75 assists and 115 points he was an all NHL first team member he was in NHL Allstar in 2015 16 17 18 19 22 and 23 the last two years again both with Columbus he was the 2017 lady Bing winner after accumulating only four penalty minutes in 76 regular season games um he amassed uh in his three years at Boston College he scored 78 goals and 97 assists for 175 points and amassed only 53 penalty minutes in those three years combined uh Matthew kachuck had actually been the head coach of their alma mater their High School in New Jersey uh in in glower city was Glouster Catholic uh High School um and had recently accepted a skills coach position with a junior team in West Chester Pennsylvania and unfortunately this is now ripped apart not only the Gad family but now the extended family as uh as Johnny was had uh a young son and a young daughter um and Matthew's wife was slated to give birth uh in December where Matthew was slated to turn 30 on December the 5th um this is this is again something entirely entirely preventable and that we see all too often Mike and I discussed this uh briefly towards the end of that segment this would be the equivalent of uh what happened with Jose Fernandez and the Miami Marlins a number of years ago where your best player um who has the capability of not only being an Allstar um but is one of the best players at his position in the entire league um unfortunately passes away far too early with an offseason accident and NHL training campers are now that we are into September we're going to be playing uh we're going to be playing preseason hockey in less than three weeks and we're going to have camps breaking some of them could be breaking as early as next weekend um and now the Blue Jackets have to uh go from possibly catching lightning in a bottle to try and contend for a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference certainly improve over last year's horrific campaign um and now have to dedicate the entire season uh to Johnny gdo because really at this point if you're a Columbus fan with the lack of talent that there is and now your best player is gone um this year is going to be a a year-long uh tribute to the memory and the greatness that was Johnny cadro um you have to think the the claer Catholic High School uh is going to be thinking the same thing you're probably going to see multiple tributes um season long for through the sound Tigers organization um for Matthew Gad and um and kudos to the NHL this is not an easy scenario when somebody this high profile uh when Kobe passed away he had been retired for several years when Jose Fernandez passed away um it was again right before the beginning of the the season uh which is why this is this one's hitting a little bit harder on hockey fans altogether and I I will absolutely confess I am not a Columbus Blue Jack fan uh by any stretch of the imagination um even you know being in Cleveland um and their minor league affiliate playing not even you know 15 minutes you know from where I'm from where I live um in towntown Cleveland um but the makeshift Arenas I'm sorry the makeshift memorials the impromptu memorials that have shown up outside of Nationwide arena in Columbus uh the Scotia Bank Saddle Dome in Calgary um you would have to imagine in Bridgeport uh in at Boston College and the countless countless tributes that we have seen from all 32 NHL squads not only on with official statements on their website um but also really all of their social media accounts their Instagrams Twitter's Facebooks uh any of them that have Tik toks threads um their YouTube channels um this this one this one hurts uh quite a bit especially with how fresh this season is going to look this is something that um there's a lot of promise for a lot of teams as a as a Blues fan can we get back to the playoffs can the saber Poss possibly get into the playoffs um you know are the are the Panthers that dialed in to where they can possibly repeat his Cup champions the Panthers could you know are looking forward to uh in just over A month's time raising their first Stanley Cup Banner parading the cup around the ice getting their Rings uh in front of their home crowd and now unfortunately uh we actually are going to have multi-e tributes prior to the start of every um home opener across the league and it regardless of whether it's pre-season or regular season the Flames actually put out a video uh Friday where the ice is all painted up minus the the sponsorships uh on the ice surface itself for uh the Flames to be playing regular uh I'm sorry exhibition games here in in in a few weeks and there was it was an empty completely Empty Arena and a just a memory graphic of gdo on all four sides of Johnny gdo on all four sides of the um of their of their jumbo Patron and I could definitely see a scenario where the Flames retired Johnny's Jersey um and possibly the Blue Jackets as well uh I'm not sure if the sound ERS would do something like that for for Matthew gdo um I could see Boston College possibly retiring Johnny's Jersey um and also remember that Johnny gdra kind of rose to prominence because it was right in the wake of Johnny Manzel Johnny Manzel had actually come out and taken the the college football World by storm was drafted by the Cleveland Browns was known as Johnny Football and then grro decided to capitalize on that and basically kind of dub himself and and copyright the the nickname Johnny hockey and then we saw uh John Morrison real name John henigan the professional wrestler um who I believe was signed with uh TNA wrestling at the time uh was then kind of dubbed himself uh uh Johnny wrestling or actually you know uh wanted to but it was also something that uh in the wake of Johnny Menzel being drafted by the Cleveland Browns Johnny Gargano uh the current WWE wrestler then started to be qually known as Johnny wrestling uh and used that on a lot of his WWE gear when he was in NXT then continued you know the name is stuck with his um main roster call up and his and his success but uh Johnny hockey that name stuck whereas Manzel flamed out really after two to three years of professional football ball after one season he was basically broken off by the Browns um but gdo Johnny gdo definitely lived up to that name now granted the N the numbers had slid back his first two years in Columbus uh because Columbus did not have a whole lot you're not you're not going to expect the same level of numbers um in Calgary when you go to a bottom Place team that's kind of been an afterthought uh for all but a handful of of of their 25 seasons in the NHL um and the Blue Jackets were actually coming up on you know on that 25 year anniversary and unfortunately now this is something that's going to be hanging over this franchise not only for this entire season but probably in the next few years to come so let me know what you guys think what was your favorite memory of Johnny gdo um do you have one of Matthew gdo uh what would you equate this to uh in terms of if someone were to pass away or even if it was in a different sport in terms of their star power and I will be back with you guys very very soon take care