HENDERSON, Nev. — Johnny Gaudreau arrived in Las Vegas this week at the NHL Player Media Tour ready to promote the Columbus Blue Jackets to national reporters, to build hope for a bounce-back season.
Instead, the club's leading scorer found himself doing damage control Tuesday as his new coach Mike Babcock's get-to-know-you methods dominated hockey's headlines.
"I was a little upset how it got kinda blown out of proportion there," Gaudreau told Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek during a recording of their 32 Thoughts podcast in Henderson, Nev.
"It sucks to see how it kinda got blown out in the wrong direction."
How it played out was Spittin' Chicklets co-host and former player Paul Bissonnette reporting on the podcast that Babcock had been asking Blue Jackets to see photos on their phones and AirPlaying them on his office TV. Putting players on the spot.
Babcock said Bissonnette's depiction of the situation "was a gross misrepresentation of those meetings."
Jackets captain Boone Jenner said, "To have this blown out of proportion is truly disappointing.”
Gaudreau, a 10-year veteran and leader on the team, said "not a single person" on the team approached him to express discomfort with Babcock's photo access requests. He believes if a teammate does take issue with Babcock's approach, they will feel at ease going to Gaudreau, Jenner or Zach Werenski.
"It was his way of kinda getting to know me, and I got to get to know him," Gaudreau said. "I wasn't uncomfortable at all. I was showing him pictures of my family. If I had (a) problem with it, I would've been like, 'I don't think I'm comfortable with that.' But I had no problem with it."
Gaudreau, 30, explained that Babcock initiated the exchange by saying, "I want to get to know you. Show me some pictures of your family, what you like to in the summer, things you did this summer. So, I pulled up pictures."
Gaudreau says he was happy to share photos of his 10-month-old daughter, Noa; his mother and father; his brother; his beloved and recently deceased grandmother; and his dog.
"I've never had a coach take a direction like that and get to know me on a personal level like that right off the bat — and it was the first time I ever met him. He showed me a few things about his family and kinda talked about his kids and his wife and the dogs that he's watching now ... We got to know each other that way. Then we got right into the hockey after," Gaudreau said.
"When someone asks to see your family, I love my family. A big reason why I chose Columbus is I wanted to be around them more.
"That's important to me. I think it's a great idea for somebody to get to know me is getting to know my family.
"You know, Babs was thinking of flying down to Jersey and spend an afternoon at my house getting to know me and my family. It didn't work out that way, but he was planning to do that."
The NHL has spoken to multiple Blue Jackets and, thus far, has found no sign of wrongdoing on Babcock's part.
Bissonnette is sticking by the version of the situation as characterized on the podcast.
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