Montreal Canadiens taking heat for removing Gaudreau memorial

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Finnegan Frost
September 4, 2024 (9:28 PM)

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The Montreal Canadiens are currently on blast right now for removing all the Johnny Gaudreau memorials outside the Bell Centre.

Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew Gaudreau were struck by a vehicle near their home in Salem County, New Jersey, on Thursday night. Unfortunately, both Johnny and Matthew passed away as a result of the accident.

In a surprising turn of events, the Montreal Canadiens have decided to remove the tribute to Johnny Gaudreau that had recently been displayed around the Bell Centre. The staff, specifically those working at the arena, are said to be throwing away the Gaudreau tribute items, recently been put in place to honor the NHL star by the hockey community.

This is truly a classless move by the Habs in the wake of such recent events. Fans around the NHL are still in the early stages of mourning and should be able to pay homage to Gaudreau.

There has been reports of the Gaudreau memorials going against the Bell Centres policies, but even so, such exceptions should be made when tragedies like this happen.

A lot of questions have been raised about the Habs' motivations with fans wondering if it was only intended as a temporary installation or if negative feedback prompted the franchise to initiate the removal and maintain the focus on their own storied history.

It will be interesting to see how the Montreal Canadiens deal with this situation moving forward. Habs forward Cole Caufield recently changed his jersey number to 13 in honour of Gaudreau, and the tributes outside Bell Centre are going to continue to be shared.

source: Hockey Feed
Canadian team under fire for removing all traces of Johnny Gaudreau tributes