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Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard
Boy on Ice The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard Author:John Branch The Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter's heartbreaking account of the life and shocking death of the toughest man in hockey. — Boy on IceisNew York Timesreporter John Branch's chronicle of Boogaard's tragic life and death. A human story in the tradition ofFriday Night LightsandThe Blind Side, it's a book that raises deep and disturbing questions abo... more »ut the systemic brutality of contact sports-from peewees to professionals-and damage that reaches far beyond the game.
Derek Boogaard was a mountain of a man who lived an almost mythic sports story: from pond-hockey on the prairies of Saskatchewan to a first NHL contract in Minnesota, to the storied New York Rangers as the most-feared enforcer in the league. A gentle young man, he was a brutal fighter on ice skates, capable of delivering career-ending punches and intimidating entire teams. But at twenty-eight, his death from an overdose of painkillers in the wake of a series of concussions helped shatter the silence about violence in professional sports.
Boy on Iceis a heart-rending, riveting inside look at the life of an enforcer, a book that, unlike any other, reveals in dynamic fashion the rules on the ice, where reputations are won and careers can depend on a single punch. In the case of Derek Boogaard, his final battle, with prescription medication, cost him his life.« less