The USA Hockey Brotherhood Carried Johnny Hockey With Them All The Way To The Gold: Mary Katharine Ham

There will be two iconic pictures of the celebration after Team USA’s overtime Gold-Medal win Sunday in hockey. In one, the man who scored the golden goal, Jack Hughes, smiles into the stands, shattered front teeth, fist raised in celebration, a flag draped over his shoulders— the picture of grit and glory. 

But elsewhere on the ice, in that moment, two of his teammates were planning the second iconic photo. After the Star-Spangled Banner rang out, the team gathered for a shot at center ice. Zach Werenski and Dylan Larkin skated toward the stands, gesturing to the family of their fallen former teammate, Johnny Gaudreau. Each man hoisted a dark-haired toddler over the rails and onto the ice. They folded Gaudreau’s children, 3-year-old Noa and 2-year-old Johnny Jr., into the team picture as Gaudreau’s widow, Meredith, and his parents watched from the stands. 

Sunday’s hard-fought win against rival Canada felt fated in a lot of ways. It was played on George Washington’s birthday on America’s 250th. It was one year after the USA lost to Canada in the finals of the 4 Nations Face-Off, setting up an Olympic grudge match for the ages. It also happened to be the 46th anniversary of the 1980 Miracle on Ice, the last time America’s men took Gold in hockey, at the Lake Placid Olympics. And for many in the arena, it was played for Johnny, whose family had been enveloped just this way by the "hockey brotherhood," as Hughes called it in a post-game interview, since his tragic death in 2024. 

On August 29, 2024 Gaudreau and his brother Matthew were on a bike ride in New Jersey when life took a horrific turn. The Columbus Blue Jackets phenom, who was known as "Johnny Hockey," was in town with family for his sister’s wedding when an allegedly drunk driver tried to pass a slower car and struck the Gaudreau brothers, 31 and 29, who were riding on the right side of the road. Johnny and Matthew died at the scene, leaving behind two wives, two sisters, two parents, and Johnny’s two young children. The driver will face trial this month in New Jersey.

At the memorial service for the brothers, we learned life had taken another turn before their deaths. Meredith Gaudreau, Johnny’s wife, announced she was pregnant with their third child, "a total surprise." 

"John and I had the best six months as a family of four. These will forever be the best six months of my life," she said at the memorial service. "There's specifically one week that I will cherish forever — it will be my favorite week of my life out of those six months. We're actually a family of five. I'm in my ninth week of pregnancy with our third baby."

Madeline Gaudreau, Matthew’s wife, was pregnant with their first child. 

Since then, Carter Michael Gaudreau, Johnny’s son, and Tripp Matthew Gaudreau, Matthew’s son, have been added to the family roster. The family marvels at how much they look like their dads, so much so that their mother Jane told the AP last year that it felt a little like God had given them "John and Matty back."

Add to the list of those who survive the Gaudreau brothers, two children they will never get to meet. But when the brothers couldn’t be there for them, the brotherhood was.

Johnny Hockey was a star, a decorated collegiate player at Boston College before going pro with the Calgary Flames in 2014, where he scored the only goal of the night on the very first game of his career CHECK. He represented the USA on multiple World Championship teams and would have been on the 4 Nations team in 2025 and Olympic team in 2026 had his life not been cut short. 

USA Hockey did not forget him. Instead, they carried Johnny with them wherever they played. Gaudreau had a locker at the 4 Nations Face-Off, his jersey hanging inside. Before that final game in 2025— a gutting 3-2 overtime loss for the Team USA — Mike Eruzione, of the 1980 Olympic Gold Medal team, wore Gaudreau’s jersey as an honorary captain. 

There have been 5Ks to raise money for their childhood school, which needed a new playground, tributes at NHL games across both Canada and America, with chants of "Johnny Hockey." Their father Guy stayed involved in the national team and with the Blue Jackets, who donned Johnny’s signature jeans, boots, and Avalon Surf Shop hoodie for one of their games this year. Those same teammates insisted Jane come on the annual Blue Jacket Mom bonding trip in 2025.

But the road has not been easy. Their sister Katie rescheduled her wedding for 10 months after the day that changed their lives, with her mother encouraging her not to let the man who took her brothers take another important thing from their family. When it came time for the Olympics, Katie returned the favor, urging her parents to go to Milan. 

"Our two daughters, for 24 hours, they just kept at us: 'You have to go. The boys would want you to do this. This would mean so much to John,'" Jane told Newsweek. "It just means so much to our family, and we're so excited to remember what our boys meant to hockey."

We talk a lot these days about what masculinity means. The discourse devolves into caricatures of low-T latte-drinkers vs. looksmaxxing trad chads. But Team USA displays a model that has always existed between the poles— rough men who relish getting up at 4 am in frigid temps to get stronger, who will happily throw haymakers for their country and friends, who are uncomplicated in their pride about Team USA. That those men can also be the ones who protect widows and comfort children is not a surprise if you’ve met real men who were raised well (in this case, by the tough, loving hockey moms and dads in the stands). 

These men are also unabashed in their love for the accomplishments of the women around them. Hughes said one of the first things he thought of after putting his game-winner in the back of the net was his counterpart on the U.S. Women’s team, Megan Keller, who did the same in her Gold-medal match. He’d congratulated her in the cafeteria the day before his big moment came. Megan’s teammate, Haley Winn, was raucously supported by her three older brothers, who became viral stars wearing screaming-eagle masks, matching Stars-and-Stripes ensembles, and deploying light beers from their frat-tactical utility belts. These ‘Merica-maxxing men also left their little sister a heart-melting voice message, declaring her their hero now that she’d achieved the goal they’d watched her work for since she was on skates before she could walk. 

Out on the ice after the Gold Medal ceremony, brothers came together again, showing that mix of toughness and tenderness the world really needs to keep living well, even after life kicks your teeth in. 

"We’re thinking of him, we played for him, and we tried to make him proud," Werenski said of Gaudreau. "It was an unbelievable moment having his kids on the ice and that one was for him."