Cole Caufield Will Be Paying Tribute To His Hero Johnny Gaudreau By Switching To Number 13 This Year
Over the next few weeks and months, there are going to be a ton of people in the hockey world trying to figure out ways to properly pay tribute and honor the lives of Johnny and Matty Gaudreau. It speaks volumes as how to much of an impact both of these guys had on everyone around them in the game. It seems like it doesn't matter if you were teammates with them for a few days or a few seasons, they were one of everybody's favorites to play with. Not just because of their ridiculous amounts of skill on the ice, but mainly for the way they treated everybody off the ice. We've been seeing countless stories come in about the way both of these guys treated everyone in the locker room, and all of them seem like Johnny and Matty were willing to treat any teammate like they had been friends for life.
The one thing that's important to remember is that there's not going to be a right way or a wrong way to honor the lives of these two legends. I'm sure some people think it's a jersey patch or a helmet sticker. I'm sure some people will think the best way is to hang their numbers in the rafters. Cole Caufield will be switching from #22 to #13 this season. And all of those ideas are perfect because it's up to everyone on their own to decide how they want to pay tribute to two guys who gave the hockey community all they have.
Obviously part of what makes Caufield switching to #13 so special is that as a short king himself, you can see so much of Johnny's game in his. You can tell how much time he spent as a kid studying Johnny's game and working it into his own. The creativity he moves with up and down the ice to keep him out of harms way of running into a bunch of 6'4" mutants in the corners. Johnny Hockey was his hero. As a smaller guy coming up in the game, you only have so many guys you can really look up to as proof that you yourself can make it at the next level. I'm sure for Johnny Gaudreau as a Flyers fan, he had Daniel Briere as his "if he can do it, then so can I" type of player to build his game around. For Cole Caufield, that was Johnny Gaudreau. And now every time you throw on a Canadiens game and see an undersized #13 buzzing around the ice, a little part of Johnny Gaudreau is still out there. It'll never be enough to fully bring him back, but it'll at least be a great reminder of what special talents and humans the Gaudreau boys were when we were lucky enough to have them with us here.
Quick sidenote here: The amount of strength both Johnny and Matty's wives have been showing just through posts on social media has been incredible over these last few days, along with their sisters. I don't know exactly how it can happen, but the NHL needs to find a way to honor Meredith and Madeline Gaudreau this year. They've been hit with such a crushing tragedy, but somehow they both seem to have more strength to carry on the legacy of their husbands than anyone else out there.
If you'd like to help out, the link to the GoFundMe to help support Matthew's wife, Madeline, and their future baby Tripp is right here.