Boston College honours Gaudreaus, Voce in emotional home opener
The impact Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau had on Boston College, both on the ice and around campus, was enormous and far-reaching. Before Friday’s home opener, the Eagles honoured the brothers and Tony Voce in front of an emotional crowd.
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CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — A college hockey rink, like Johnny Gaudreau himself, makes an enormous impact for its size. The one Gaudreau played in for three seasons, Kelley Rink, was on fire Friday night for the Boston College Eagles home-opener. The brass band blew the hits and huge swaths of boisterous students behind each net were always standing, except when they were jumping.
All that energy, though, made the calm of a pre-game moment of silence that much more poignant. It came following a video tribute to honour Johnny Gaudreau, his brother Matthew Gaudreau and Tony Voce, a third former Eagles player who was taken too early after passing suddenly in the summer at age 43.
The losses weigh heavy on the Eagles community. In addition to honouring the men on Friday, the team is carving out a night in November when it hopes both the Gaudreau and Voce families can come to Kelley Rink and remember their loved ones in a place that meant so much to Johnny, Matthew and Tony.
This is, after all, college. It’s supposed to be the time of your life, especially when you’re in a rowdy arena with your fellow students cheering on the school team. And all the more so if you happen to be one of the talented, lucky guys playing on that squad. Being an Eagle was certainly a cherished existence for Johnny and Matthew. And what BC coach Greg Brown will never forget about the brothers is the fact they managed to take an experience that is already magical for all involved and somehow sprinkle a little more fairy dust on it.
“It’s a tough one [to think about], but just the way they could light up a room,” Brown said when asked what he recalls about the Gaudreaus one day before the home-opener. “They came with smiles every day. They loved being teammates; they loved being in the locker room; they went on the ice with joy. All those things have a great effect on your teammates, your coaches, everything. When the enthusiasm to be there every day is that consistent and that noticeable, it picks up everyone else’s mood.”
Brown was an associate coach when Johnny and Matthew played, but joined head coach Jerry York’s staff one year after Voce’s final season in 2003-04. That said, Brown certainly knew Voce to be a great person and tireless competitor. “He had an edge to him and really got into the dirty areas,” Brown said. “Could score a ton of goals and played a fearless game. He wasn’t he biggest guy, but he was always around the blue paint.“
Of course, few players in the history of hockey have ever thrived with a small frame like Johnny Gaudreau. And while, as Brown notes, the outpouring of emotion we’ve witnessed across the hockey world is due to who Johnny and Matthew were as people, they were student-athletes at BC and the level their athletic ability rose to is worth celebrating, too.
In his final senior year with the squad, the 2016-17 campaign, Matthew tied for the BC scoring lead. Johnny, of course, was a dizzying talent who helped push the Eagles to a national title in his freshman season of 2011-12. The game Friday night, though a lopsided 5-0 win for the home team against overmatched American International College, was a tough affair, with plenty of big-body collisions and heavy stickwork. Johnny encountered that brand of hockey at 18 years old with, perhaps, all of 150 pounds to carry into the fight.
“Not quite [150], I think,” Brown said with a chuckle.
In all seriousness, Brown recalls the coaching staff having genuine concerns about how Johnny would fare at the start of his career, specifically in an early-season tilt versus an always-physical North Dakota squad. Brown can’t remember exactly how fat Gaudreau’s stat line was from the game, but suffice it say their worries were put to rest.
“One of the USA Hockey people described it this way; when you see him in person, there’s nothing that can prepare you for what he’s able to do on the ice,” Brown says. “And that’s really true. The vision, the creativity, the ideas were just [at] the highest level. To be able to just survive at that size is incredible, but to be able excel and control games and make all the plays he made at that size while avoiding much bigger players really defies logic.
“He started well [as a freshman], but it seemed like the second half of the year he was already an elite college player. When we came back from Christmas, he just had an impact on every single game, right through the national championship.”
The BC player exhibiting next-level offensive abilities against AIC was Gabe Perreault, who was named first star of the contest for his three-point showing. Afterwards, the sophomore winger spoke about what these Eagles wanted to do to honour Johnny, Matthew and Tony.
“Personally, I didn’t get meet them, but the things you hear about them are unbelievable, those three guys were a huge part of this community,” Perreault said. “I think the biggest thing we could do tonight was play for them.”
One of the guys doing his best out there was James Hagens, the young man who stands a strong chance of being picked first overall in the 2025 NHL Draft. Hagens got his first NCAA goal against AIC and also drew the primary assist on the beautiful snipe that opened the scoring by Aram Minnetian, who happens to be a New Jersey boy just like Johnny and Matthew.
Hagens is also experiencing the added joy of playing college hockey alongside his brother, Micheal, something Johnny and Matthew got to do at BC for one season before Johnny moved on to dazzle even bigger crowds in the NHL.
“Again, they just loved to be together,” Brown said. “The happiness they had together just brought energy you couldn’t describe, but you loved seeing it; you loved seeing it in the locker room, you loved seeing it on the ice. Unfortunately, the whole world is going to miss that now.”
Nothing can fill the real-life void created by these three losses. But on the ice at BC, the current team will forge a link to the past with their play. Perreault and Hagens will be Johnny-esque with their offensive wizardry; Ryan Leonard will remind people of Voce — a Hobey Baker finalist in 2004 — thanks to his board-rattling, greasy game; Will Vote — who scored his third goal of the year versus AIC — is finding success in a five-foot-8, 161-pound frame that’s very similar to the one Matthew played with. They can all be the excuse to remember who Johnny, Tony and Matthew were at Boston College.
“It’s just hard to let go,” Brown said after the game. “They were such a big part of the community here.”
