Meredith Gaudreau lights pregame cannon for Blue Jackets

The Columbus Blue Jackets had a very special guest to light the pregame cannon on Tuesday.

Before the team’s game against the Calgary Flames at Nationwide Arena, Meredith Gaudreau – wife of the late Johnny Gaudreau – participated in the tradition.

Meredith was joined at the cannon by two of her kids, Noa and Johnny Jr., who was wearing a stylish Gaudreau No. 13 jacket. (Her third kid, Carter, wasn't with them but is only nine months old).

Gaudreau had connections to both the Flames and the Blue Jackets during his NHL career, playing in Calgary for his first nine years in the League before signing with the Blue Jackets as a free agent in 2022.

He and his brother, Matthew, were tragically killed while riding bicycles near their home in Salem County, New Jersey, on Aug. 29, 2024, when they were struck by an alleged drunken driver who has been charged with two counts of death by auto.

Meredith and the kids joined the Flames at practice on Monday, with Noa even participating in the postgame press conference with Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson.

Andersson was close friends with Gaudreau and the two were teammates in Calgary from 2016 to 2022.

He said on Monday that he visited with Meredith and the family this week, after not seeing them for nearly a year.

“It is really special to come out here and come to see them,” Andersson said. “It fulfills your heart. Especially when you can’t see them on a regular basis, any opportunity that we get to see them we make sure we do.”