Nordecke announces a moment of silence during Saturday's Columbus Crew game

On Friday, August 30, the Columbus Blue Jackets organization released a press release that shocked the city, supporters of the team, and the hockey world. The team confirmed that star forward Johnny Gaudreau, and his brother Matthew Gaudreau, had passed away. Johnny was just 31 years old and Matthew was just 29.

The two were killed while biking in Oldmans Township, New Jersey, just a day before their sister's wedding day. According to information that has been released in the past few hours, the Gaudreau brothers were killed by a suspected drunk driver who crashed into them while the pair was actively biking.

Gaudreau was one of the top players for the Blue Jackets in recent years after being signed in July of 2022.

Since the information was released, the outpouring of support from Columbus and the hockey world has been unnoticeable. In the early morning hours on Friday, the official Nordecke X (Twitter) account stated that the Columbus Crew supporters group would observe a moment of silence on Saturday.

The moment of silence will take place at the 13:00 minute mark of Saturday's game. For an extended period of time now, the bond between Columbus organizations and teams has only continued to grow with an outpouring of respect being evident.

The Black & Gold are preparing to clash against New York City FC with kickoff set to begin at 7:30 p.m. EST from Lower.com Field.