The Philadelphia Flyers welcomed Guy Gaudreau, the father of Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, who tragically passed away in August, to help coach their training camp practice session Monday.
The Gaudreau are local to the area of New Jersey where the Flyers' practice facility is located in Vorhees.
Head coach John Tortorella explained that he invited Mr. Gaudreau, a hockey coach himself, to the session in the hopes that being on the ice and in the locker room with the Flyers will lift his spirits a bit as he continues grieving his two sons.
"I called [him] and wanted to know if he wanted to come out," Tortorella said. "It's pretty close to home as far as with his family and what's going on there...I never met Johnny and Matt in my travels as a coach, but [it's] a horrific situation."
Tortorella said that while Gaudreau was "hesitant" at first, but the entire organization was elated to see him on the ice with the players.
"I figured it's perfect just to get him in with us," he said. "He was hesitant at first, and we kind of let him go at his timetable and I think it worked out really well today. I gave him my camp book and we're gonna check in next week and see if we can get him out here a couple more times.
"I think it'll be therapeutic for him to be around us and run some drills. He's done it before, he's a coach, [so] it's great. It was great to have him here."
The players were equally as pleased to welcome Guadreau to practice, with Nick Seeler echoing Tortorella's sentiment that they hope it can be a positive thing for the entire Gaudreau family.
"It's so tragic and it just breaks your heart," Seeler said. "To have Mr. Gaudreau out here...hopefully there's some sort of healing in that. If [being around the Flyers] helps, then that's great. It'll be great to have him around and hopefully we see some more of him."
