Derek Leendert Boogaard ( BOH -gard ; later BOO -gard ; June 23, 1982 - May 13, 2011) is a Canadian professional ice hockey who leaves the winger playing for Minnesota Wild and the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL).
Originally from Saskatchewan, where he grew up in several different communities as the son of a Mountie, he is known primarily as a fighter and enforcer throughout his career, from junior hockey to professional. His combat skills make him the nickname "Boogeyman" and "The Mountie", and make him a fan favorite. In 2007, he was voted the second most intimidating player in the NHL, behind Georges Laraque, who attributed his retirement partly to the desire to avoid the serious injury that Boogaard could inflict, such as a broken cheekbone suffered by Todd Fedoruk. fixed with metal plate.
He died at the age of 28 from an overdose of drugs and alcohol while recovering from a concussion. A posthumous examination of his brain found him suffering from a more advanced chronic traumatic encephalopathy than was seen in some former enforcers who had died in middle age. The disclosure came shortly after the deaths of two other hockey workers, both of whom were also under 40 years old and had similar health problems. Three deaths sparked a debate in the hockey community about the issues faced by enforcers and their place in the game. His parents have filed lawsuits against the NHL and his players' union on his death.
Video Derek Boogaard
Childhood and family
Boogaard was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the first child of four children Len Boogaard, a Royal Canadian Police officer (RCMP) and his wife Joanne, who lived in Hanley at the time. Derek has two younger brothers, Ryan and Aaron, and a sister, Krysten. Families move every few years due to transfers required by RCMP. While they were staying for a while near Toronto, most of Len Boogaard's writings were in Saskatchewan.
Derek grew up in Herbert, a Mennonite-dominated community. She is taller than most children her age, reaching a height of 6 feet 4 inches (193 cm) and 210 pounds (95 kg) at the age of 15. The spurt of adolescent growth causes chronic pain in his knee. At school he struggles, especially with reading - his father believes Derek has "cognitive and behavioral issues", particularly impulsive.
He is often a bullying target, because of its size, shame, and being the son of a police officer. When challenged for a fight, he often won it convincingly, though friends and family said he was not looking for them. "Derek will definitely survive for the team, he will survive for his teammates," recalls one of his young hockey coaches, "but by no means at all."
His family encouraged him to play hockey as an outlet, and his father often drove him to a long-distance game in his police car, an experience that Boogaard would keep in mind in his later life. He paused at the age of 12, but his family persuaded him to return. Early in his teens he stated that his purpose in life was to play in the NHL, and idolize Wendel Clark, another Saskatchewan native who was then the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Boogaards then moved to Melfort. Len often drives his son to Saskatoon for additional training in skating and boxing. In Young Hockey Derek, due to his size, often gets a penalty which, says his coach, is not his fault. Parents of both teammates and opposing players complain that he is too big to play with children his age.
Maps Derek Boogaard
Play career
One night, while playing for the Melfort Mustangs, an unspecified incident caused Boogaard to jump onto the opponent's bench and attempt to fight with the opposing player, whose team led by a wide margin. "He has gone ballistic," said his father, who was present. "It's something I've never seen before." Boogaard was expelled from the game, and after changing his uniform sat next to his father in the stands. Then they were approached by scouts from Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League. They were impressed by Boogaard's courage and offered him a chance to play junior hockey with the team, the first stop to reach the NHL.
Western Hockey League
By the time he starts his junior hockey career, Boogaard has realized that if he wants to make it to the NHL, he will only be able to do it as an enforcer, because battle is his strongest skill. In his first struggle with Caps, he was challenged by other big players on the team. Boogaard broke the nose of another player with his first blow.
Regina Pats
His parents divorced but both moved to Regina to be close to him. Boogaard's career there did not get off to a good start when he retired from his first fight in a game against the Moose Jaw Warriors. As a result, he was transferred to the lower division of Regina Pats of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. He played there for most of the 1998-99 season, scoring two goals and five points in 35 games, with 166 penalties (PIM).
That season was not a good season for Boogaard. At one point he begged the coach to let him play during the tournament in Calgary, but to no avail. He stopped after the game and, his mother remembered, cried all the way home when he came to pick her up. That summer he got into a fight with some friends one night, where, he wrote later, they beat seven men around the age of 30.
In the following season, he has reached full adult height 6 feet 7 inches (200 cm). The Pats called him back to the training camp, and he was involved in 12 fights over four soccer drills. He plays in five games with the team, does not earn points and 17 PIMs. At the start of the rookie season, he traded to Prince George Cougars after losing the match against the Kelowna Rockets.
Prince George Cougars
During his first season he was fit for 20 games, did not register points and had a total of the highest third-highest penalty spot on the team with 149. He lost his first fight, against Eric Godard, future NHL enforcer with New York Islanders. "This is a very long year for me," he wrote later. "I'm struggling with everything that looks." She had trouble following rules and classes that failed at school. At the end of the season, he suffered a broken jaw in a match against Tri-City America, and was sent home to Regina to be healed. She was expected to lose weight because of the liquid diet she forced on him by covering her jaw, but actually getting it when she found a way to get food through a gap in the wires.
After considering hockey stops again during the training camp, he returned to Cougars for the second season in 2000-01. He finally found a foster family he could recognize, and started winning his battle over the ice. He avenged losses from the previous season, including ones where he had been injured. Prince George fans started shouting his name in the game, and one poll named him the toughest player in the WHL's Western Conference.
In 61 games he scored and nine points. The PIM that leads his team 245 is the eighth highest total in the league. In the playoffs, Boogaard scored in six games, while collecting 30 PIMs. "I do not think I've ever seen our arena, or Derek, who was happy when he scored it [in the playoffs]," said one of his assistant coaches. Boogaard agrees, writing, "It was the best feeling I had in the last 2 years." After the season, Minnesota Liar composed Boogaard in the seventh round, the 202nd overall, in the NHL Sign In Draft 2001.
Boogaard started the 2001-02 season with Cougars, performing in two games, not recording points and 16 PIMs. He then traded to Medicine Hat Tigers.
Medicine Hat Tigers
Boogaard finished the 2001-02 season with Medicine Hat Tigers, when he appeared in 46 games with the team, scored and nine points, while having 178 PIMs, third highest in the team.
He spent part of 2002-03 with Medicine Hat, as he played in 27 games, scored and scored three points, while registering 65 PIMs.
National Hockey League
Minnesota Wild
Boogaard signed a professional contract with Minnesota Wild, and they put Boogaard with Esgator Louisiana from ECHL to finish the 2002-03 season. His coach was told to develop him as a law enforcer. They did not foresee him going to the NHL, but his work ethic impressed them. "Give him credit," one later told The New York Times. "This man wants his way to the NHL."
In 33 games with Louisiana, Boogaard has one goal and three points, along with a team that has 240 PIMs. In two playoff games, Boogaard has no points and no penalty. He continued his skating lessons and his fist in the ice rink. He works by running in the hills and training his skills, both with coaches and alone.
Chronic pain from older wounds grows during underage years. His shoulders hurt from an old collarbone fracture. One morning his back pain was so strong that he could not make his own shoes. Team doctors often give Ambien to players so they can cope with stressful pain and schedules. Boogaard is said to have made use of this.
The next season he was assigned to Houston Eros from AHL, where he has no goals and four points in 53 games. His PIM 207 leads Eros. In the playoffs, appear in two games, get help, while posting 16 PIM.
With NHL 2004-05 lock-out canceling the NHL season, Boogaard returns to Eros for the 2004-05 season, as he scores and five points in 56 matches, as well as leads the team with 259 PIM. In five playoff games, Boogaard has no points, and has 38 PIMs installed.
In Houston his fame as law enforcement began to grow, as he won his fight. Tim runs a replay of his fight on the arena video board, calling it "Boogeyman Cam". They give you a bobblehead from Boogaard, complete with boxing swinging. An opposing coach told Eros colleagues that Boogaard was their team's most valuable player because of his intimidating presence.
Boogaard made his NHL debut in the 2005-06 season. He made Wild's list out of the training camp when coach Jacques Lemaire saw the same intimidating effect on another team owned by the opposing coach, as well as the tendency of young players to win the battle.
The first rookie slid on 5 October 2005, not getting points in 3:58 ice time in a 6-3 win over the Calgary Flames. In the second week of the season, he will get his help, his fight, and his first goal. The maid came on goal by Wes Walz on October 14, 2005 in a 5-3 loss to Vancouver Canucks. Two days later, he fought for the first time, dropping Anaheim Ducks' Kip Brennan into the ice. He then scored his first NHL goal on October 19, 2005, beating San Jose Sharks forward Evgeni Nabokov in a 6-1 victory over San Jose Sharks. Boogaard finished the rookie season in the NHL with two goals, six points, while leading Wild with 158 PIMs in 65 games.
In 2006-07, Boogaard appeared in 48 games with Wild, got assists, and led the club with 120 PIM. At the start of the season, in another match against Anaheim, he broke Todd Fedoruk's cheekbones so hard that it had to be rebuilt surgically, with metal plates and nets, affecting Fedoruk's career. He made his NHL debut playoff on April 11, 2007, not earning points in a 2-1 loss to Anaheim Ducks. Boogaard earned his first playoff points, getting assists on 17 April 2007 in a 4-1 win over the Ducks. He finished the playoffs with four matches played, one assists and 20 PIMs.
Towards the end of one of the games in the Ducks series, with Minnesota leading the two teams fighting and mocking each other. During the break, the fans shouted Boogaard's name. He did not play at all in the game, and Lemaire sent him inside. He just slid in front of the Anaheim bench, and smiled. The crowd roared in applause. "If the roof is not broken, it will fly," her mother recalls. "He does not have to fight, he does not have to be hurt, he does not have to hurt anyone, it's the best he can go there and play skate." The incident video clip is a family favorite and Boogaard's friends.
Boogaard played in 34 games with Wild in the 2007-08 season, earning no points, while registering 74 PIMs, the fourth highest total in the team. Fedoruk, who had suffered a severe injury the previous season, signed a contract with Wild, became a teammate and friend. Boogaard himself became a popular player outside the ice, No jersey. His 24 became one of the best-selling teams. "It's the brand's ferocity and the softness of its character," commented a team executive. In the playoffs, Boogaard went in vain in six games, while installing 24 PIMs, the second highest total at the club.
He played 51 games with Minnesota in 2008-09, earned three assists, and led the team with 87 PIMs. He got help on October 16, 2008 against Florida Panthers, which was his first point since getting help on February 8, 2007, also against Florida Panthers. It represents a 49-game drought without goal.
During the season he started taking prescription painkillers for back pain. After two operations later in the season, he was also prescribed Percocet. His brother, Aaron, said that because of his size, Boogaard usually had to take extra pills to have them have any effect. "She will have 30 pills in a few days, she will need 8 to 10 times to feel okay.
He found that Wild's team of doctors did not track who had determined what, and ended up getting eight of those prescriptions for 11 different drugs, mostly containing hydrocodones, such as Vicodin. He also frequently visits sports bars in downtown Minneapolis where customers who recognize him buy him drinks. He bought extra prescription pills worth thousands of dollars from other acquaintances. Often he will take eight OxyContin tablets at once, chew them to compensate for the drug release formula. His brother Aaron, who lived with Boogaard during the quiet season, often hid the pills.
He developed an addiction, and missed the training camp before the 2009-10 season. Tim says he's recovering from a concussion, but he's actually at a drug rehab center in Southern California. He returned five games to the season, beating David Koci from Colorado Landslide in his first fight.
Friends, teammates, coaches, and family say that while Boogaard's game does not change, his personality changes. "He's just sort of - an empty face," recalled John Scott. He fell asleep in odd moments and was late for meetings and exercises. The team warned other players not to share their prescription drugs with him.
That season, Boogaard appeared in 57 games, the highest total since the rookie season in 2005-06. Boogaard has four points, and the team is 105 PIM high. On 7 March 2010, Boogaard was suspended for two matches after knee-kicks were hit against Edmonton Oilers forward Ryan Jones.
After the season, Wild secretly offered to exchange it with another team. Boogaard becomes an unlimited free agent. The Wild offers to double his salary, but the other team can offer more. Oilers and New York Rangers each offer $ 1.5 million a year. His family wanted him to sign a contract with Edmonton so he could get closer to them, but he decided to play in New York. "It's one of the big cities and you're always on the center stage when you're out there, so I'm happy," Boogaard told the Star Tribune Minneapolis. The $ 6.5 million four-year contract he signed with his new team is a lucrative deal for a law enforcer.
New York Rangers
Boogaard reports to his new team at 300 pounds (40 kg), 40 pounds (18 kg) above his official weight. The Rangers fear his effectiveness may be diminished, and that he can be seriously injured in the fight. But within a month of the new season, he has put the worries to rest, scoring his first goal since the rookie season and winning the fight.
He made his Rangers debut on October 9, 2010, not earning points in a 6-3 win over Buffalo Sabers. Six days later he helped Brian Boyle's goal with a 4-3 loss from Toronto Maple Leafs, his first point as Ranger. In early November he defeated Jiers Shelley of the Philadelphia Flyers in a fight, and scored in Michal Neuvirth from the Washington Capitals in a 5-3 defeat, ending a 234 game defeat. Rangers fans shouted his name in the next home game as he beat Steve MacIntyre from Edmonton. In the second fight during the game, MacIntyre broke his nose, possibly causing Boogaard's concussion.
A month later, Boogaard suffered a late season concussion in a fight with Matt Carkner of the Ottawa Senator. Carkner attacked first and Boogaard, instead of replying with his own blow, persisted and looked away. "I noticed he stopped fighting and I dropped him and landed on top," Carkner said after the game. "It feels good to drop a big man like that."
Overall, Boogaard appeared in 22 matches with Rangers, scored and two points, while registering 45 PIMs. The team attributed her absence with a shoulder injury, then added that she had a headache. Placed on injured injuries for the rest of the season, he became a hermit in his apartment in downtown Manhattan, suffering from post-concussion syndrome.
He was told to avoid the rink because vision can cause nausea. The Rangers send balanced meals every day, but Boogaard often dumps them for fast food. Once a week he went to the Huntington suburb of Long Huntington to buy the same prescription drug at the thousands of dollars he was hooked from a merchant there. When his father visited him in January, Boogaard cried in his arms several times.
Other visitors, old friends who come to see him play and look around at the start of the season, no longer do it. She grew lonely in her apartment, and ran high phone bills contacting people, some of whom she had not talked to for years. His 222-page mobile phone bill for February 2011 recorded 13,724 separate text messages.
Those who come to notice a more striking change in his personality. He is darker, goes from mania to depression, and slightly takes care of himself. The fun quality that makes him cherished by fans in Minneapolis is less evidence. He joked that his increased memory increase was the result of all the blows he had done before.
He returned to the ice for light training in March, but fainted while playing skating in a few days. The Rangers sent him back to California for rehab. Aaron Boogaard, who visited his brother there, said the two often exercise and relax on the beach while Derek missed a meeting or therapy session. Credit card records show that Boogaard spent $ 32,000 in two weeks there, including $ 1,200 for dinner and $ 5,000 to hire Porsche. Friends who were contacted during this time thought he was just on vacation. During the break, he flies to New York, buys more pills and drives them to his apartment in Minnesota.
Death
In May, Boogaard was given another recess to attend his sister's graduation from the University of Kansas. He and Aaron's brother went from California back to Minneapolis, planning to spend a few days with Ryan, another brother of Boogaard. On the night of May 12, Derek went with his friends. Before they left the apartment, Aaron gave Derek what he said later was the 30 mg Percocet tablet he held for his brother.
Boogaard and his friends went to a steak restaurant for dinner, where he consumed a mixed drink along with his steak. They then circulated among four different bars, drinking more as they did.
Upon returning home, Derek went to the bathroom, then the bedroom, several times before his friends left. At 3 am, he called Aaron from the kitchen, where he made pancakes, several times, complaining that the bed was spinning. "He's miserable," Aaron recalled. Derek finally stops, apparently asleep, and Aaron goes to the house of a girlfriend and does not return until the afternoon.
When he did, Derek was still in bed. Assuming her brother is still hanged for alcohol use, Aaron says that he will pick Ryan up at the airport. When he returned, Ryan, who like his father became an RCMP officer, noticed that Derek's body was still and the rigor mortis was already installed. Both call 9-1-1 and their parents.
The firefighter who answered first said he was killed at the scene. She was a month and ten days shorter than her 29th birthday. The autopsy results found that the cause of Boogaard's death was an accidental overdose of alcohol and oxycodone. "The coroner said with the mix, he probably died soon after he closed his eyes," Aaron said.
His family then agreed to donate his brain to the Sports Legacy Institute at Boston University Medical School who studied the athlete's brain in high-contact sports. SLI is particularly interested in the degenerative brain condition of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which can only be diagnosed after death.
Two months later, IDD doctor Ann McKee told the family in a conference call that Boogaard did suffer from the disease, with significant damage to her brain tissue. The CTE is more advanced than other former NHL players, Bob Probert, a newly deceased person at the age of 45, and is likely to cause the middle-aged dementia he lives in.
On July 22, 2011, Aaron was charged with the distribution of illegal substances. The allegations were dismissed in October 2011, at the same time she pleaded guilty to ruining the scene of death, a minor crime, because she had confessed to police that she had flushed the rest of the pills into the toilet before they arrived. He was sentenced to probation and 80 hours of community service.
After his brain was removed for an SLI study, Boogaard's body was cremated. Her mother kept ashes in an informal shrine for her son at her home in Regina. The following season, Wild paid tribute to Boogaard with the video spotlight and moment of silence. His family was presented with flowers, Boogaard paintings and framed jersey in the middle of the ice.
Issue increases
While the circumstances of Boogaard's death are beyond doubt, it raises some questions about how it might have been prevented. Two similar deaths led to debates on issues faced by hockey enforcers and even their continuing role in the game, as well as the NHL's attitude towards health problems resulting from concussions. Boogaard's father has also expressed concern over how his son's drug abuses are handled and may be activated by the team he is playing.
Four months after Boogaard's death, two enforcers, Rick Rypien and retired Wade Belak, also died. Rypien, who is also in his 20s, committed suicide. The 35-year-old Belak's death was initially described as suicide but his family and friends say it was not intentional. Both also suffer from depression, such as Boogaard.
The deaths caused some former law enforcement and sports authors to question whether the league is enough to deal with the effects of many concussions suffered and the pressures from their roles. Georges Laraque, a recently retired enforcer, said he never liked being a person despite his long career and the praise brought him. Many other enforcers drink a lot to face the anxiety of knowing that they have to fight every game. Don Cherry, former Boston Bruins coach who is now a popular and controversial television commentator, responded by calling on a second guesser like Laraque "pukes" and "hypocrite". In December The New York Times presents a long three-part series for Boogaard's life and death that addresses many issues.
While the league has taken several steps to tackle the concussion problem, recently in banning blindside hit to the head and requiring players suffering from head injuries checked in a quiet room away from the bench, still not convinced that CTE was found in Boogaard and other players posthumous is a direct result of their hockey career. "There is not much data, and the experts we spoke to, who consulted us, thought it was too early to draw any conclusions at this point," said commissioner Gary Bettman. In the announcement of its findings, SLI says:
The relationship between Boogaard's brain pathology and its clinical symptoms, particularly the behavioral changes and memory problems that he has experienced in the past two years, is unclear. For example, his clinical symptoms occurred during the same time period he showed abuse of narcotics. CTE has been found in other deceased athletes who died of an overdose or who have problems with substance abuse. It is not known whether substance abuse is caused by impulse control issues associated with CTE or if they are unrelated.
Len Boogaard, now working at the table with RCMP, has been investigating his son's drug use when he can, trying to see which Derek recipes are justified, and finding out what his contacts know. When he visited Derek in New York a few months before his death, he was shocked to learn that his son still got a prescription from the doctors team despite his recent history of abuse and treatment. At one point, he accused, Derek received notice four days earlier from the next drug test. "We are working very closely with Derek inside and outside the ice to give him the best care," said general manager Glen Sather in a statement.
Litigation by parent
In September 2012, Boogaards filed a lawsuit against the National Hockey League Player Association (NHLPA), in Los Angeles seeking $ 9.8 million in damages. They allege that the guild was negligent for failing to file a complaint against Rangers, as they advised the Boogaards they would, after the death of their son to balance the money on his contract. Despite mentioning only the NHLPA as a defendant, there is speculation that it will raise the issue of the errors of both teams, leagues and drug treatment facilities that Boogaard attended. Boogaards lawyers refused to say whether additional settings were being planned; the union said that the lawsuit was unfounded. The beginning of 2013 was dismissed; the judge ruled that Boogaards had been waiting too long to make their claim.
Shortly after, Boogaards filed a new lawsuit, this time against the NHL. In a case brought to the Illinois state court by a company that represents former NFL players in their lawsuit against their league over a concussion injury, they accuse a wrongful death against the league. The lawsuit claims that reckless recipes for painkillers issued to Boogaard by Wild and Rangers team physicians have led to his addiction, and that Boogaard's drug treatment program has been sent to take any action to discipline him despite being aware of double rule violations and failures. drug test. Finally, Boogaards says the league should be aware of the increased risk of concussion faced by law enforcement. They do not specify the specific amount of damage sought, instead of asking to be handed over to the jury to be determined.
Suspect capture
On September 9, 2014, The New York Times reported that Jordan Hart, a former player of Utah Grizzlies and former son of Islander Gerry Hart, was arrested for selling Boogaard the Percocet pills that eventually led to his death. Painkillers were obtained through an illegal recipe issued to Hart by Oscar Johnson, medical contact of Hart's career with the Grizzlies. Hart faces up to twenty years in prison if found guilty and Johnson's trial is scheduled for late September 2014 for "26 numbers distributing and possessing with intent to distribute the drug." Hart was sentenced on October 6, 2016 to one year of probation and 100 hours of community service.
Role as law enforcement
Boogaard's KO from fellow enforcer Todd Fedoruk in a fight during the game against Anaheim Ducks helped spark a debate over increased penalties for fighting in the NHL. During this fight, Boogaard landed a brutal blow to the cheek that sent Fedoruk to the ice. As a result, Fedoruk had to undergo surgery to reconstruct his crushed cheeks using titanium plates. Fedoruk and Boogaard will later become teammates in Minnesota during the 2007-08 season. On 6 November 2005, Boogaard got rid of Trevor Gillies, a duck breeder, with a blow to the jaw.
The anxiety of having to face Boogaard, even occasionally, and the possibility that the younger man might inflict similar injuries on him, causing Georges Laraque to retire. "I know sooner or later he will get better than me," he said after Boogaard's death. "And I just - I like my face, and I just do not want to break."
Boogaard and his brother Harun, who played hockey for the Rio Grande Valley Killer Valley in the Central Hockey League, run Derek and Aaron Boogaard Fighting Camp in Regina, Saskatchewan, for children aged 12 to 18. This sparked controversy, with some people taking sides with Boogaards, saying that they taught children how to avoid getting hurt in a fight, and others against them, with the position that the Boogaards camp encourages children to fight.
Career statistics
See also
- List of deaths from drug overdose and intoxication
- List of ice hockey players who died during their playing career
- List of Minnesota Wild players
- List of New York Rangers players
Note
References
External links
- Biographical information and career statistics from NHL.com, or Eliteprospects.com, or the Internet Hockey Database
- Derek Boogaard Profile on Yahoo! Sports
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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