For Johnny and Matthew: Blue Jackets to play their home opener with Gaudreaus in mind

Johnny Gaudreau’s Columbus teammates have been given a few options for how to handle their emotions during the Blue Jackets’ home opener.

If you want to cry, cry.

If you want to laugh, laugh.

The only rules — play the game the way “Johnny Hockey” would, and with him in mind.

An emotional night awaits in Columbus on Tuesday, when the Blue Jackets host the Florida Panthers. It will be a night of tributes to Gaudreau, the Blue Jackets’ star who would have been entering his third season with the club and 11th NHL season overall, and his brother Matthew Gaudreau. They were killed on Aug. 29 when police said they were struck by a suspected drunken driver while they were riding their bicycles on a rural road in New Jersey on the eve of their sister Katie’s wedding.

“It’s such an unprecedented thing and something that obviously none of us wanted to go through, and nobody ever wants to go through it,” Blue Jackets coach Dean Evason said Monday as final preparations for the celebration of the Gaudreaus were being made. “But we have to.”

The 31-year-old Gaudreau wore jersey No. 13 for the Blue Jackets. Matthew Gaudreau — who was 29 and played five pro seasons in the American Hockey League, East Coast Hockey League and in Sweden — wore jersey No. 21. All 32 NHL teams are wearing decals on their helmets with 13, 21 and the letter G on their helmets through Oct. 24. USA Hockey has a similar tribute for its teams at all levels this year.

On Tuesday, the “13” tributes will be almost everywhere. Both the Blue Jackets and Panthers will take the ice for warmups wearing jerseys bearing the name Gaudreau and jersey number 13; those sweaters will be auctioned and raffled off to benefit the John and Matthew Gaudreau Foundation. There’s “13” on the ice behind the goals. All fans in attendance will receive a “13” patch, the ones Blue Jackets players will be wearing on their jerseys this season.

And they say the game starts at 7 p.m., but really, puck drop is at 7:13.

“Whatever they need,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said Monday. “Whatever the fans need, whatever the team needs to start that healing process, we’d be proud to be a part of it.”

Gaudreau — all of 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds — was a star at Boston College before making it to the NHL, his debut coming in Calgary’s finale for the 2013-14 season. His first goal came on his first shot in his first game, and his star only kept shining brighter from there.

The player who fished the puck out of the net after Gaudreau’s first goal was Sean Monahan, his teammate then in Calgary and his teammate now in Columbus.

“I saw it firsthand. He had an impact on so many people,” Monahan said. “I mean, players that played against him are a fan of his and watch him and study his game and try and be like him.”

Monahan likely never aspired to be a donkey. Going forward, the Blue Jackets will clamor to be called one.

Johnny Gaudreau used that term — “donkey” — freely and endearingly around friends and teammates. The Blue Jackets have had a celebration for about a decade where the player of the game gets to wear a Civil War-style kepi hat, the recipient selected by the previous player recipient. The kepi is retired. The player of the game now gets a donkey hat. Monahan was the first to receive it.

“I’m really happy that we’ve kind of switched it up,” Blue Jackets defenseman Erik Gudbranson said. “I think it’s fitting for us. It was a great idea. And, you know, we wish the little guy was still here calling us that, But Monny is the right guy to get that the first time, for sure.”

Guy Gaudreau, the late brothers' father and a longtime coach, was on the ice with the Blue Jackets for practice in Columbus on Monday and planned to be back for morning skate on Tuesday. Members of the family will be at the game. The tributes will not stop with this game. They'll keep going, one way or another, for years to come.

“There's going to be some tough moments, no doubt about it,” Gudbranson said. “We still miss him.”

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Seattle Kraken and St. Louis Blues players stand for a moment of silence for Columbus Blue Jackets player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew Gaudreau, who were killed by a driver in New Jersey in August, before an NHL hockey game, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

The number, 13, worn by former Calgary Flames player Johnny Gaudreau, is displayed during a memorial ceremony prior to an NHL hockey game against the Philadelphia Flyers in Calgary, Alberta, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

The number, 13, worn by former Calgary Flames player Johnny Gaudreau, is displayed during a memorial ceremony prior to an NHL hockey game against the Philadelphia Flyers in Calgary, Alberta, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)

Columbus Blue Jackets center Cole Sillinger, left, and Minnesota Wild center Frederick Gaudreau, center, follow the puck during the first period of an NHL hockey game, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Seattle Kraken players stand for a moment of silence for Columbus Blue Jackets player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew Gaudreau, who were killed by a driver in New Jersey in August, before an NHL hockey game against the St. Louis Blues, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins (90) stands on a No. 13 on the ice honoring former Blue Jackets player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew Gaudreau who were killed by a driver in New Jersey in August, before an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

The funeral of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general killed alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah drew the largest crowd of top leaders in the paramilitary organization together Tuesday for the first time since Tehran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel.

Rumors circulated for weeks over the status of the head of the Guard's expeditionary arm, Gen. Esmail Qaani, but the Quds Force leader was seen in a black bomber jacket wiping away tears early Tuesday morning at the body repatriation at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.

Meanwhile, Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 15 people overnight, including six children and two women, Palestinian medical officials said Tuesday. In northern Gaza, where Israel has been waging an air and ground campaign in Jabaliya for more than a week, residents said families were still trapped in their homes and shelters.

It’s been more than a year since Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many were fighters but say women and children make up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.

In solidarity with Hamas, Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has exchanged cross-border fire with Israel almost daily for the past year. Israel escalated its campaign against the group in recent weeks.

Here's the latest:

JERUSALEM — Israeli police accused Hamas operatives in Turkey of directing a militant attack in August in Tel Aviv in which an explosive went off on a busy street, killing the attacker and wounding a bystander.

There was no immediate comment from Turkey. Relations between the two countries have plunged since the start of the war in Gaza.

Turkey has long provided political support for Hamas, including welcoming its top leaders on visits, but denies involvement in its military activities.

The bomb appeared to have gone off before it was planned to, and it was unclear if the attacker had planned to carry out a suicide bombing or plant the explosives. Both Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group claimed the attack.

Police said Tuesday that they filed indictments against eight suspects. They said the attacker was a militant from Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, who had been directed by an operative in Turkey. They said one of the attack planners had traveled to Turkey several times for explosives training, and that a raid in Nablus uncovered more bombs and funds transferred from Turkey. The police did not provide evidence.

“The findings of this investigation clearly indicate the establishment of Hamas headquarters in Turkey and their extensive efforts abroad to incite violence and carry out bombings in Israel,” the police statement said.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Palestinian first responders say they recovered 11 bodies, nearly all women and children, from a home destroyed in an airstrike in northern Gaza, where Israel has been waging an air and ground operation for over a week.

The Gaza Health Ministry’s ambulance service said the dead recovered Tuesday were all from the same family and included seven women and three children.

Fares Abu Hamza, head of the emergency service, said ambulances were only able to reach the area in the Jabaliya refugee camp around 12 hours after the airstrike late Monday. He said funeral prayers for the dead, which included a medic killed in Jabaliya, were held Tuesday in the courtyard of the Kamal Adwan Hospital.

First responders from the Civil Defense said its teams evacuated three families Tuesday who were stuck inside their homes in Jabaliya for several days because of heavy fighting.

Since the start of the war, the Israeli military has carried out several large operations in Jabaliya — a densely populated urban refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation — only to return months later after saying militants had regrouped there. Israel launched a large operation there on Oct. 6.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The funeral of an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general killed alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah drew the largest crowd of top leaders in the paramilitary organization together Tuesday for the first time since Tehran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel.

The Guard’s leadership hasn’t been as visible in the two weeks since Iran’s Oct. 1 attack on Israel. The Guard is the main power behind Iran’s theocracy and oversees its arsenal of ballistic missiles — which would be crucial in any future attack on Israel.

At the funeral in Tehran for Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, the Guard’s chief commander, Gen. Hossein Salami, attended alongside President Masoud Pezeshkian and the head of the country’s judiciary. Other Guard generals also attended, including Gen. Esmail Qaani of the Guard’s expeditionary Quds Force, about whom rumors had circulated for days regarding his status after the strike that killed Nasrallah.

At least two prominent Guard generals were not on hand: Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of Guard’s aerospace division that oversees its missile program, and Gen. Ali Reza Tangsiri, commander of the Guard’s navy, did not attend.

Iran offered no explanation for their absence, though Israel has threatened to carry out a serious retaliatory strike against Iran.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes in the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 15 people overnight, including six children and two women, Palestinian medical officials said Tuesday.

A strike early Tuesday hit a house in the southern town of Beni Suhaila, killing at least 10 people from one extended family, according to Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Younis. The dead include three children and one woman, according to hospital records. An Associated Press camera operator at the hospital counted the bodies.

In the nearby town of Fakhari, a strike hit a house early Tuesday, killing five people, including three children and a woman, according to the European Hospital, where the casualties were taken.

The Israeli military rarely comments on individual strikes. It says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas, accusing the militants of sheltering in civilian areas.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — In northern Gaza, where Israel has been waging an air and ground campaign in Jabaliya for more than a week, residents said families were still trapped in their homes and shelters Tuesday.

Adel al-Deqes said his relatives tried to move to another place in Jabaliya in the morning, but the military shelled them.

“We don’t know who died and who is still alive,” he said.

Ahmed Awda, another Jabaliya resident, said they heard “constant bombing and gunfire” overnight and Tuesday morning. He said the military destroyed many buildings in the eastern and northern parts of the camp, which dates back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.

“They bombed many buildings; some of them empty buildings,” he said.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The head of the expeditionary arm of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has appeared in television footage aired Tuesday by Iranian state television.

Rumors circulated for weeks over Gen. Esmail Qaani’s status in the time since an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut in late September. But Qaani, the head of the Quds Force, was seen in a black bomber jacket, wiping away tears at an event early Tuesday morning at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport.

While Iranian state television did not acknowledge the rumors, it made a point to film Qaani for over a minute and later share the footage from the airport ceremony online.

Qaani was on hand for the repatriation to Iran of the body of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, 58, who was killed in the airstrike.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Australia’s government has imposed targeted financial sanctions and travel bans on five Iranians contributing to the country’s missile defense program, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Tuesday.

Iran’s launch of at least 180 ballistic missiles against Israel on Oct. 1 was “a dangerous escalation that increased the risk of a wider regional war,” Wong said in a statement.

The fresh sanctions target two directors and a senior official in Iran’s Aerospace Industries Organization, the director of the Shahid Bagheri Industrial Group, and the commercial director of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group.

The decision brings to 200 the number of Iran-linked individuals and entities now sanctioned by Australia.

“Australia will continue to hold Iran to account for its reckless and destabilizing actions,” Wong said.

People chant slogans during the funeral ceremony of the late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in late September, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People and officials attend the funeral ceremony of the late Iranian Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in late September, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Commander of the Iran's Revolutionary Guard Quds Force, Gen. Esmail Qaani, mourns during the funeral ceremony of the late Revolutionary Guard Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut in late September, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Mourners carry the coffin of Iranian Revolutionary Guards' deputy commander Brigadier Gen. Abbas Nilforushan who died alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut last month during his funeral in Karbala, Iraq, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)

Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Pro-Israel protesters holds Israeli flags as demonstrators protest Israel's war against Hamas outside the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

A displaced family fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, sits next to their tent on Beirut's corniche, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Families fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, sit in front of the Mohammad al-Amin Mosque in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Mourners carry a picture of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during the funeral procession of their relatives, in Maisara near the northern coastal town of Byblos, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Palestinians look at the damage after an Israeli strike hit a tent area in the courtyard of Al Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Middle East latest: Israeli strikes on southern Gaza kill at least 15 people overnight

Middle East latest: Israeli strikes on southern Gaza kill at least 15 people overnight