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Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard

Review

Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard

No matter how you choose to look at it, BOY ON ICE is an extraordinarily sad book. Any time you have the accidental death of a 28-year-old man, you will have a tale of sorrow, but it is particularly more poignant given the struggles he had as a boy trying to make his way in the hockey world.

Derek Boogaard's tale is not one of great skill and ready-made success. Instead, his is the story of the shy giant, the oversized boy who sought acceptance, who took on the role of enforcer because coaches liked his size. He was intimidating on the ice, but reserved and kind off it. Unlike most enforcers, he did not resort to showmanship or flash. He merely did his job and took his licks. That he made it to the NHL at all was a surprise to everyone, though he worked hard to make that dream a reality. The toll it took and the price it made him pay are far too tragic.

John Branch tells the life of Derek Boogaard with smooth and factual precision, which you would expect from a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter. Where he really brings depth is in the interwoven examination of the toll the enforcer role takes on players --- physically and mentally --- and he does so without entering into a preachy realm that could become a turnoff to certain readers given the hot-button issue of fighting in hockey.

"John Branch tells the life of Derek Boogaard with smooth and factual precision... Where he really brings depth is in the interwoven examination of the toll the enforcer role takes on players...and he does so without entering into a preachy realm..."

Instead, Branch relies on analysis of Boogaard's own medical timeline: the constant injuries to the hands that are never allowed to heal, the shoulder and back pains, the repeated broken noses, the lost teeth, the headaches and concussions...and the medications prescribed in extraordinary volumes to keep the pain at bay. By no means was Boogaard an isolated case. All those who made their living with their fists seemed to share this same path, including teammate Todd Fedoruk and feared heavyweight Georges Laraque.

And, in many ways, Branch shines a light on the failures of the team medical community, as well as the NHL substance abuse program: multiple doctors who did not share information and all prescribed high doses of medication simultaneously, feeding his addiction; doctors giving him some of the medication he was barred from using during his rehabilitation; and repeated drug test failures that resulted in no further action by the program or the teams.

If I had one quibble with BOY ON ICE, it was in Branch using Boogaard's notes and memories and repeatedly pointing out his misspellings. After a time it felt more like cheap potshots being taken at the hulking boy who never finished high school rather than using those notes for what their purpose was: to give Boogaard the only direct involvement he could have in his own story. Branch easily could have cleaned up those passages and explained in an author's note that Boogaard’s spelling was suspect and was corrected for purposes of the textual presentation. 

The timeliness of the book is twofold. For one, the NHL season has just kicked off once again, and so hulking giants like Boogaard will take to the ice and seek each other out, continuing the tradition of toughness that he found himself following during his time in the league. And it comes a mere month after the arrest of two individuals connected with Boogaard's death through the supplying of the powerful drugs he so desperately needed.

The abuse of prescription medications, some illegally obtained off the street, the failed rehab stints in California, the alcohol consumption, and the postmortem severe CTE diagnosis all bring a heartwarming against-the-odds success story to a crashing halt. It is the Icarus myth made real, and all the more sad when you consider that so many people saw Boogaard spiraling and changing. Tragically, none of their help or love was enough to save him from himself.

Reviewed by Stephen Hubbard on October 17, 2014

Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard
by John Branch

  • Publication Date: October 13, 2015
  • Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Sports
  • Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
  • ISBN-10: 0393351912
  • ISBN-13: 9780393351910