Alright everyone, story time. Sorry in advance for oversharing.
How Whiskey became the biggest Johnny Gaudreau homer on HF
I first spotted Johnny during his time in Dubuque, when I went to watch a family friend of mine (he was a goaltender for another USHL team). I knew instantly that Johnny was a special talent. He couldn't have been any bigger than 5'6 130, yet the puck followed him all over the ice. One thing that most people may not know is that, during his time in Dubuque, Johnny really wasn't that great of a skater, especially for a guy his size. He had a quick first few steps and great edges, but he wasn't all that fast. And he wasn't the prolific NZ puck carrier that he became in the NHL. Yet he was still getting more puck touches than anyone else on the ice, making the niftiest little passes and dangles you could imagine. I'd never seen a player consistently create such a high volume of scoring chances out of seemingly nothing. He truly had that once in a generation hockey IQ. I ambitiously ranked as a late first in my 2011 draft rankings. He had me hooked - and I was lucky enough to become acquainted with some of the Gaudreau family and Lewis.
Fast forward to 2014. My parents had come over for Halloween, so my Dad and I watched the Nashville - Calgary game. I had been following Johnny very closely to this point, so I told my dad to keep an eye out for the peewee winger wearing #13 red. And Johnny did not disappoint.
Early in the 3rd, with the Flames trailing 2-1, Johnny put together 3 consecutive shifts in a 4 min span that completely changed the game.
You can watch this sequence of shifts starting
here:
- First shift: He weaves thru traffic and then crashes the net to setup the tying goal.
- Second shift: He dances past Jones and Ekholm to create a great chance, and then draws the penalty that leads to the go ahead goal.
- Third shift: He outmuscles Craig Smith down the wing and snipe Rinne for the eventual GWG.
It was the type of performance that made it impossible not to be a fan, which was perfect since it was my Dad's first viewing. What made it even better was when Eric Francis, in the first intermission,
explained how he was "worried about Gaudreau", that he was "a timbit" who was going to need protection against big, tough teams. All because Johnny got knocked over by Volchenkov after absolutely walking him at the blue line:
Listening to Francis consistently put his foot in his mouth was one of our favorite past times. Generally, one of the best things about cheering for Johnny was the way he seemed to
always prove the doubters wrong. I'm layering on the hyperbole here, but it went something like:
- "He's gonna get demolished by college players"
- "He won't be able to pull that stuff off against NHL defenseman"
- "He needs to get sent to the AHL, 0 points in his first 5 games shows he's too small"
- "He needs a body guard or else he's gonna get really hurt vs big teams like LA"
- "Sure, he scored a natural hat trick to come back down 3-0 vs the defending cup champs, but the third goal off Doughty was all luck"
- "He may have had an okay regular season, but he's a tiny rookie, let's see him do it in the playoffs"
- "Yeah, he had a lucky playoff run, but he's gonna slump so hard as a sophomore"
- "Okay, he was 6th in scoring in his 2nd year, but he couldn't even carry the Flames to the playoffs"
- "Sure, he carried the Flames to the playoffs, but he can't even get them out of the first round"
- "I expect Johnny Gaudreau to take a backseat to Matthew Tkachuk"
- "He may have led the Flames in goals and points, but he's still ineffective at ES and is a huge defensive liability"
- "Yeah, he scored the most ES points since 90s Jagr while posting the highest +/- since 80's Gretzky, but he still can't get it done when it matters"
- "Lucky shot vs Oettinger"
Anyways, from that point on, my dad and I watched almost every game of Johnny Gaudreau's career together. Even though we lived 3 hours apart, we would call each other at the start of every game and talk about how great this kid was, and how amazing he'd prove to be if Calgary could get a real NHL coach and some more talent around him. On those rare nights where we couldn't call to watch the game together, I'd be sure to call him on my way into work to talk about it. And when we were lucky enough to get the family all together, Johnny would seemingly always do something special (like his natural hattrick vs the Kings right before Christmas 2014). It went like this for 4 years.
Then in the late summer of 2018, my mom passed away unexpectedly, and my dad came home to live with me, my wife, and our 2 young daughters. That first winter was incredibly difficult for all of us, but my dad completely shut down, and started drinking again after 2 decades of sobriety. He didn't get out of bed most days. Unless Calgary was playing. Watching Johnny gave him something to look forward to that first year.
And as if by some miracle, those next few months were some of the best hockey Johnny would play, He was a front runner for the Hart through his first 48 games, leading the flames to 1st in the West, with 28 goals and 71 points, (only 4 points back of Kucherov for the league lead at the time). His electric play helped my Dad get through the most painful loss of his life. He had even started to joke that "at least we don't have to call each other to watch Johnny anymore."
Honestly, I don't know if my dad would have made it through that winter without having Johnny to look forward to, as the following summer he had to be institutionalized for a week because of suicidal threats.
We continued to watch him game in and game out, through COVID, his Hart worthy performance in 2022 (which again helped my Dad, as he was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2021), his game 7 OT winner, his move to Columbus, his time wearing the stars and stripes...
Between preseason, regular season, playoffs, and international tournaments, we probably watched anywhere from 780-800 Johnny Gaudreau games
together in these last 11 years. That's roughly 2,000 hours that I got to spend bonding and healing with my sick Dad, sharing moments that will last a life time.
Thanks for the memories John. Rest in Peace.
We as a society need to make some changes with our relationship to alcohol. The narrative that heavy alcohol consumption is needed to have a good time is pervasive in our society, and the continued encouragement and normalization of the type of behavior that so often leads to unspeakable tragedies such as these is pretty unforgivable.
I 100% support any organization that takes explicit action to avoid perpetuating this dangerous narrative. Anyone who doesn't drink will tell you how lonely it can feel, and how aggressively curious your "friends" can be when they can't fathom why anybody would not like drinking. They seem to think it's their social duty to convince you to have a drink, because if your not having fun how can they???
That's not to say I'm completely anti-alcohol - I'll have a locker room beer after a game, and I enjoy having a drink or two every few months to celebrate special occasions or to wind down from a particularly stressful day.
But when I think back to the most fun memories of my life, pretty much none of them involved alcohol. When I was younger it was hockey with my brothers, LAN parties, poker tournaments, and board games. And now as a father, it's coaching my girls to play the sport I love, taking the family to Canes games, and sitting with my sick dad watching Johnny Gaudreau make magic, which we'll never be able to do again because some asshole decided to drive drunk.
