Flowers, sticks, bags of Skittles and bottles of purple Gatorade make up a vigil outside Conte Forum, the home rink for “Johnny Hockey” when he and his brother played at Boston College, together, for one season.
A decade later, the deaths of John and Matthew Gaudreau have hit home in the BC hockey community where they made such an indelible impact. They will be laid to rest at a funeral service Monday outside Philadelphia, but their impact on the school in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, will not soon be forgotten, along with everything they did from New Jersey to Calgary to Columbus and beyond.
“Everybody knows how gifted they were on ice, especially Johnny — an all-world type of Olympic player and college All-Star — but both players brought so much excitement to our locker room and to the dormitories and just the academic environment of BC,” former coach Jerry York said. “They left tremendous impressions on all of us. We’ll miss the hockey exploits they …