In Photos: Johnny Gaudreau's wife Meredith dines with partners of Flames players in Calgary

Modified Dec 04, 2024 13:05 GMT

Meredith Gaudreau, widow of the late Johnny Gaudreau, joined the partners of Calgary Flames players for a private dinner on the eve of the Flames tribute to her husband and his brother Matthew.

The dinner took place at Mercato Foods in Calgary and was attended by several partners of Flames players, including Frida Backlund, Claudia Mangiapane, Tessa Andersson, Maggie Jenner and Sarah Gudbranson.

Flames alternate captain Rasmus Andersson’s wife, Tessa, shared a photo on her Instagram stories featuring Meredith and Claudia Mangiapane, wife of Andrew Mangiapane, at the cafe. Meredith and Claudia were holding Tessa’s daughter, Lucy, as the group smiled for the camera.

“Happies with my girls 🤍🤍,” Tessa wrote in the caption.

Sarah Gudbranson, wife of Erik Gudbranson, shared a photo of the dinner table at Mercato Foods, displaying plates of pasta, breadsticks and the tribute menu. She captioned it:

“John’s favourites 🤍”

Blue Jackets alternate captain Boone Jenner’s wife, Maggie, flew in to Calgary to attend the gathering. She posted a view of snowy plains and distant mountains from an airplane window.

“Calgary, AB for our girl @meredithgaudreau,” Maggie wrote in the caption.

She also posted a story showing the menu of the evening titled ‘Johnny’s Favourites’, which featured some of the late NHLer’s favorite Italian dishes, including bruschetta and tagliatelle.

Frida Backlund, wife of Flames captain Mikael Backlund, posted a story featuring Claudia’s outfit. Claudia wore a white sweater with black pants and carried a white cowboy boot-shaped handbag.

“Classic Claudia!” Frida captioned the picture with a cowboy emoji.

Before the game on Tuesday, a ceremonial puck drop honored Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau. Johnny's family, including his parents, wife Meredith, and siblings, participated in the ceremony. Flames players wore Gaudreau's No. 13 jersey during warmups and Blue Jackets forward Sean Monahan joined Flames captain Mikael Backlund for the opening faceoff.

Johnny Gaudreau’s wife opens up on returning to Calgary

In an interview with Sportsnet, Meredith Gaudreau shared how happy she was to be back in Calgary. She mentioned that the warm welcome from the community made her feel like she never left, despite having been away for some time.

“Yeah I never had a lot of my family be able to visit because the border was shut for most of my time here. So this is their first trip. So they have this huge bucket list of things they want to do and see, and they're gonna be blown away by this game, because John was so humble.”

She mentioned that they were grateful for the love they have received.

“They are blown away still (by) his outreach, because he doesn't, he never talked about it. So they're having a really good trip. And I wanted them to have a good trip and make it fun. And we went to Mercado last night, which was a spot where John and I always went. And, you know, just feeling like I'm doing all the same things we always did.”

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Meredith also talked about a memorial project where sticks from Johnny’s tribute were turned into a bench and was touched to see how the fans' donations were used. She recently met with Parachute for Pets, an organization that included Johnny and Bailey in their annual calendar. The stuffed animals from the memorial were donated to them.