Sean Monahan has two goals in Columbus Blue Jackets debut; reflects on Johnny Gaudreau

This summer the Columbus Blue Jackets experienced a high when Sean Monahan signed a five-year deal to play alongside one of his best friends Johnny Gaudreau. Tragically Gaudreau along with his brother Matthew lost their lives in a tragic accident.

After playing in his first game where scored two goals, Monahan spoke about the experience and how he felt being in Columbus and seeing Gaudreau's jersey in his stall. Take a look:

While the entire situation has been incredibly difficult on the entire hockey world, the immeasurable loss of the Gaudreau brothers has been especially hard on those closest to them and with Monahan being one of Johnny's best friends and the idea that they were ready to play hockey together for the first time in years for the foreseeable future is gut-wrenching.

Whether Monahan signed in Columbus solely because he knew Gaudreau so well and was excited at the prospect of reuniting is unknown, but you can bet that was a large part in his decision to head to Ohio to play.

But with any tragedy, you can bet that Monahan along with his teammates and the rest of the Blue Jackets organization will do what they can to continue to honour Johnny in any way they can. Johnny's legacy has been discussed at length in the month since his passing, but it will continue to grow along with the memories he provided many who were fortunate to get to know him as he grew into the hockey player and the man we saw and loved.