The players took the time to chat with Gaudreau on the ice and all shook his hand at the end of practice.
“It was cool to see him here,” said defenceman Travis Sanheim. “I think it’s really nice to be able to help him out in whatever way, under the circumstances. I hope it was good for him. He’s done a lot for this area and this community. It was nice to have him here.”
Tortorella said he invited Gaudreau to travel with the Flyers for their preseason game against the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre on Monday. Gaudreau told him, however, that it was a little too much, emotionally, at the moment.
But Tortorella gave Gaudreau a copy of the training camp schedule, and he hopes to have him back for another practice and run a drill or two with the players.
“We’ll see in the next week if he can come back a few more times,” Tortorella said. “I don’t want him to come here just as a spectator, I want him to participate.
“I think it can be therapeutic for him to be included with us, to lead some drills. He’s done it in the past. He’s a coach. It was great to have him there. We’ll see how far it can go.”
Tortorella attended the Gaudreau brothers’ funeral in Pennsylvania on Sept. 9. He never got the chance to meet Johnny or Matthew, but with the family living just outside Philadelphia, he believes it’s important to make sure they feel like they belong in the Flyers organization.
“I hope I can get to know the family,” he said. “I think a lot of coaches want to get to know the family. […] What happened is just horrible. It’s still pretty fresh. It’s still being felt. We just want to help in any way we can.”
