VOORHEES, N.J. — Guy Gaudreau, the father of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, helped run a Philadelphia Flyers training-camp skate Monday at the invitation of coach John Tortorella.
Guy, 67, is a former hockey coach at nearby Hollydell Ice Arena and Gloucester Catholic High School, where he helped coach his two sons, who were killed in a car crash on Aug. 29.
Tortorella, who attended the funeral for the brothers, reached out to Guy by telephone and met him for the first time Monday.
“I figured it’s perfect just to get him in with us,” Tortorella said. “He was hesitant at first and we kind of let him go at his timetable. I think it worked out really well today.”
Tortorella provided Guy with a copy of the team’s training-camp schedule, and is hopeful he’ll return in the future.
“We’ll see if we can get him out here a couple more times and have him be part of it,” Tortorella said. “I want him to be part of it. … He’s a coach. It was great to have him here, and we’ll see where it goes.”
Guy spent much of the two practice sessions observing from the boards, but as the skate concluded, he stood at center ice tapping his stick, encouraging the players to finish strong as they did laps.
“He was giving me s— that I was yelling at the players to skate harder,” Tortorella said. “He says, ‘You only have three lines out here, how much harder can they go?’ So, he’s paying attention.”
At the end of the each skate, Flyers players shook Guy’s hand before departing for the dressing room.
Flyers all thanking Guy Gaudreau for helping out today pic.twitter.com/YkexFcwHpR
— Kevin Kurz (@KKurzNHL) September 23, 2024
“Obviously, it’s so tragic what happened. It just breaks your heart,” Philadelphia defenseman Nick Seeler said. “To have Mr. Gaudreau out here and have him around the players — he’s a coach himself. Just to have him around the guys and the coaching environment, hopefully there’s some sort of healing in that.”
Said defenseman Travis Sanheim: “Any way that we can help him out (with) what’s going on, I hope it was good for him, as well. He’s done a lot for this area and the community.”
The Flyers play their second preseason game Monday night in Montreal. Tortorella invited Guy to attend the game, “but it’s a little bit too much right now. He’s going to head back home, and we’ll talk next week.”
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(Photo: Len Redkoles / NHLI via Getty Images)
