Meredith Gaudreau expressed her overwhelming gratitude for the way the Blue Jackets and the NHL honored him during the Stadium Series game.

The Stadium Series game between the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday promised to have it all: a crowd of more than 90,000 — making it the second largest in NHL history — and an electric atmosphere inside the iconic Ohio Stadium.

COLUMBUS -- Dean Evason choked up. The Columbus Blue Jackets had defeated the Detroit Red Wings 5-3 in the 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series at Ohio Stadium on Saturday, and they’d done it in front of 94,751, the second-largest crowd in NHL history. But that wasn’t the most important thing.