Meredith Gaudreau sends heartbreaking message to Sean Monahan.

The National Hockey League season is starting to get underway with teams around the league kicking off the NHL's preseason games on Saturday night. For many things are status quo around the league, but for one family in particular things couldn't be any further from normalcy.

On Friday, Meredith Gaudreau, wife of the late Johnny Gaudreau, published a message on her Instagram page that made it clear just how difficult this NHL season will be for both her and the rest of the Gaudreau family. In her message Meredith detailed how she was accustomed to helping Johnny with his preparations for the season at this time of year, with Meredith understandably distraught and heartbroken that Johnny is no longer around.

Although the message is devastating to read, I am happy to report that Meredith has found a silver lining to help her through this impossibly difficult time, a silver lining that comes in the form of one of Johnny's close friends.

That silver lining is none other than NHL veteran Sean Monahan, whom Meredith made clear she will be rooting for the whole time this season.

"It’s been really hard watching hockey start up and seeing how different my life is now," wrote Meredith via her Instagram. "My whole life was taking care of John and our kids. It’s all I ever wanted. But watching Sean wear CBJ is something I know John always always wanted. Noa loves cheering for Uncle Sean too. Wishing 23 a good training camp and can’t wait to cheer you on."

The message is both beautiful and heartbreaking and speaks to the strength and character of Meredith.

I'm confident the message will also mean a great deal to Monahan, who has made it clear he intends to keep his friend close to him this season. It was reported this week that Monahan will dress next to Johnny's locker for the entire season.