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Player Discussion: Sean Monahan

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S1N4TR4 said:
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Gee no Stamkos, shocker! (I'm being sarcastic, it was widely predicted that he would fall off a cliff without the Tampa PP)

Zucker looks like a really good signing. Monahan probably still the best.

I didn't realize how good Holloway has been. He and Broberg have looked like young stars for the Blues. And the Oilers declined to match them! They had a choice and decided they weren't worth paying. That is a potentially franchise altering f*** up. They don't have the assets to fill in those gaps.

Edit: Holloway has 13 pts in his last 10 games, he'll be one to watch tonight. He was always a beast in the corner in Edmonton just couldn't score. I haven't focused on him yet as a Blue.
 
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The car was packed and ready to go. It was late in the evening on Aug. 29, 2024, and Sean Monahan and his wife, Brittany, were set to leave Oakville, Ont., a Toronto suburb, and drive through the night so that 3-month-old Leo could spend the six hours sleeping.

It was a family affair. Monahan’s parents, John and Cathy, had their car packed to the gills, too, but with enough room for their son’s dog, Winston. They were headed to Columbus, where the Monahans were excited to start a new adventure.
“That’s when I got the call,” Monahan said. “That’s how I found out Johnny had passed.”

Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, were struck and killed while riding bicycles in Oldmans Township, N.J., the evening before their sister Katie was to be married, and just a few weeks before Monahan and Gaudreau — best of friends since playing together as Calgary Flames — were to start training camp and be reunited as Columbus Blue Jackets.

Gaudreau, who had played two seasons in Columbus, was the main reason Monahan, one of the NHL’s top two-way centers, would even consider signing as a free agent with the Jackets. Frankly, Monahan joked, Gaudreau’s recruiting pitch was a little intense.

“I’d get 40 (texts) a day from him some days, I swear,” Monahan smiled. “He was so excited. I was so excited. Our families were excited.

“We were looking forward to playing together again, of course. But we were both really excited to raise our kids together.”

But right before they could get started, it was taken away.

“It was obviously devastating,” Monahan said. “We didn’t leave. We couldn’t leave. We took a couple of days, and then we drove down and got Leo situated in Columbus, and then a couple of days later, we went to Philadelphia to see Mere (Gaudreau’s wife, Meredith) and the kids.

“Life went upside down.”

In the days that followed, Monahan wasn’t sure if it was going to work in Columbus, he said. The car sat packed in the driveway for a couple of days.

When grief makes every hour seem interminable, it’s hard to even consider the future. Did he even want to be in Columbus without Gaudreau? Could he even care about hockey?

“I wasn’t sure, to be honest,” Monahan said. “I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was in Columbus for a while and I couldn’t bring myself to the rink. It was hard.
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For those who know Monahan well, it’s been delightful to see him in this mode again. Gaudreau’s sweater still hangs in the stall right beside Monahan’s, and when he does step forward for interviews, he also steps to the side so that Gaudreau’s No. 13 sweater is right behind him.

It’s proof that you don’t move beyond grief as much as you learn to carry it.

“It’s really fun to come to the rink,” Monahan said. “Everybody loves being around each other. You’re just laughing all day, and it’s natural. You come to the rink, do your work and have fun. Nobody’s ever really slacking off. Everybody wants to win.

“I look at some of the teams I’ve played on, and you have friends for life. This team feels the same way. There are guys on the team who are 10 or 11 years younger than me, and it doesn’t matter. I enjoy being a hockey player with these guys, and I enjoy being a teammate with every guy here. It’s a joy.”
The Blue Jackets’ first star player was Rick Nash, who observed in his early days that he could move about Columbus — a restaurant, the grocery store, etc. — without drawing attention or creating a scene. No way that would have been possible in Toronto or anywhere in Canada.

But as Nash spent more time in Columbus, he picked up on something. Plenty of people noticed him in public — the smiles, the nods, the whispers said as much — but he was mostly given space, other than a few young fans who approached.
Monahan has witnessed the same, he said.

“Everybody has so much respect,” Monahan said. “People are looking at you, and they give you a little wave or a smile. But there’s a small-town feel here in a decently sized city. I love that. I didn’t expect that, but I’ve found that. It’s cool.

“Playing in that building for those fans … there’s nothing like it for me.”

Last fall, when the tragedy was still raw and the calendar kept ticking closer to hockey season, it was only fair to wonder if Monahan could ever get to this point.

Everything is different now, of course. Some days are better than others. But there are good days, Monahan said. Hockey is once again a happy place. There is joy at home, too, watching his kids and the Gaudreau kids grow, learn, laugh and play.

“I came here for a reason, and that was taken away,” Monahan said. “It’s been a whirlwind. But I feel like I’ve played here in Columbus for more than a year, to be honest. It feels like I’ve been a part of it here for a long time.”

Then he paused and smiled.

“And it feels like I’m supposed to be here.”
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This is a great article. I obviously can’t post all of it, but here’s two snippets.
 
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