Boy on Ice

Starred review from June 23, 2014
New York Times reporter Branch’s chronicle of Derek Boogaard’s winning but ultimately tragic life as hockey’s greatest enforcer is as tense and exciting as a hockey game. Branch follows Boogaard from his earliest days in the rinks as a member of the Regina Pats to his days with the Minnesota Wild and eventually to the New York Rangers. Boogaard, he points out, was never the most talented player on his minor hockey teams, but that he was a “big obstacle planted in front of the goal to gum up the opponent’s offense.” As his career took off, Boogaard accepted his role as enforcer, and Branch brings to life the highlights of his biggest fights, including his bout against Todd Fedoruk, which effectively ended Fedoruk’s career. Boogaard’s kindness and compassion off the ice contrasts with his on-ice persona, and the many fights and the painkillers begin to take their toll. Branch captures the sorrow and anguish of a young athlete’s career collapsing due to the combination of drugs and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)—a kind of dementia that causes memory loss and emotional instability (sufferers are referred to as “punch drunks”)—and asks piercing questions about violence in sports.

September 1, 2014
In hockey, the enforcer is an unofficial role usually held by players with size and fighting ability but not necessarily great hockey skills. From a young age, Derek Boogaard, known as The Boogeyman, found his place on the ice as the protector of his team and the intimidator of opposing players. Ultimately, injuries sustained from repeated fighting led to his addiction to painkillers and tragic death from an overdose at age 28. Branch, a Pulitzer-winning journalist, examines Boogaard's stunningly violent on-ice career in blow-by-blow detail, from his beginnings in Saskatchewan to his rise with the NHL's Minnesota Wild and New York Rangers. Autopsy reports showed that Derek also suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a condition often associated with football players and boxers that has become a recent focus of sports-safety advocates. Known as a gentle giant when outside the rink, Derek lived a conflicted and painful life, the facts of which will certainly add to the debate on the ramifications and necessity of institutional fighting in hockey and the debilitating effects of repeated head injuries in all professional sports.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)