Man. Sad life. Sounds like he was a good dude to hang with. I've always wondered why they allow fights in hockey. It really is terrible. I used to LOVE the fights - but that was before we understood wht the crazy things they are doing to the participants. At this point they should OUTLAW it. Penalize the crap out of it. IT really is nuts. Noi more Derrick's! ( )

If economics is the dismal science, then reading John Branch’s brilliantly titled Boy on Ice leaves little doubt that professional hockey is the dismal sport. In the Canadian tradition, Derek Boogaard was shipped away from home at age 16 to start pursuing his NHL dream. In his case, he had his heart set on being an "enforcer". In many respects that boy was not so different from the young man who died in a New York luxury apartment of a drug overdose 12 years later. As he became bigger, stronger, and ever more able to inflict pain, Boogaard’s simple routine (skate, fight, medicate, indulge), somehow prevented him from developing into the kind of strong adult that he would need to be to overcome the cumulative hell that his hockey career made of his life.

Branch tells the story well, and his studied neutrality allows just about any reader, regardless of their interest in hockey or their take on hockey violence, to care about Boogaard and his short, tragic life. One of the starkest ironies in his story is that, while young men generally develop fully mature brains at about the age of 30, Boogaard’s brain was showing the substantial destruction of Stage 2 Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy by the time he died at 28 years of age. After all, he had been regularly receiving punches to his head since he was 16 years old.

Branch’s approach is not one of laying blame, though there is likely lots to go around. Boogaard, when things were not going well, would blame his coaches. His family place the blame for Derek's fate squarely on the NHL. Others point to the vast quantities of opioids and sleeping pills that were so easy for him to acquire both legally and illegally. Hockey’s violent culture is likely the real culprit. Branch describes fight after fight in some detail, and so many of them had little to do with what was happening in the games themselves, and more to do with padding stat sheets to increase the likelihood of making it to the NHL or securing an NHL contract extension. One thing that is abundantly clear from reading Boy on Ice, is the disconnect between the contrived culture of hockey fighting and “enforcement”, and the very real cost paid by those who get caught within its phony premise. It is impossible to read this book without feeling deep sorrow. ( )

What a bitter sweet story of hockey player Derek Boogaard. I know very little about hockey but you really don't need to for this book to touch you. How sad that at 28 years old this kind hearted young man was dead. I won this from Goodreads for an honest review. ( )