Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard

There is no question that hockey is a beautiful sport to watch and an exhilarating one to play. Its practitioners accomplish their feats at lightning quick speeds while under heavy duress from their opponents' potential body checks and stick work. However, the sport has often been cast in the dark shadow of the existence and acceptance of fighting. In this debut book, journalist Branch examines the life and death of one noted hockey pugilist whose job—he argues—led to chronic and traumatic brain damage as a result of numerous concussions, prescription drug abuse, and ultimately, his death. It traces Derek Boogaard's humble beginnings playing minor hockey in frigid arenas in small towns in Saskatchewan to his life as a National Hockey League enforcer, plying his trade in modern day ice palaces as thousands of fans chanted his name. Branch tells a tale of Faustian proportion, describing a young man who desperately wanted to play hockey professionally, but whose only means to accomplish this were through using his great size (he was 6'7" without skates) and his fists.