wild/nhl

I was shocked last night to hear the news of Derek's passing while driving home. It brings tears to my eyes even now as I type this. I live in the Tri-Cities, WA and have followed Derek's career all of the way from when he played in the WHL. His younger brother, Aaron, played for our Tri-City Americans, who I have also enjoyed watching and following. I was thrilled when my brother (who lives in the Twin Cities) got me a Minnesota Wild Derek Boogaard jersey. I appreciate how hard Derek worked to improve his skills. He worked hard on the ice and it was all business but a caring teddybear off the ice. The consumate teammate and professional. God bless Derek and his family. What a caring gesture by his family. We will miss Derek. He made an impact on the game and will be loved by us Boogie Man fans.

RIP Boogie you and your family are in my prayers!

All i can say is we'll miss you Derek and thanks for the memories. RIP

We'll miss you Boogey Man!

"This is not a good day because you're not going to see the story end the way you wanted it to end," Risebrough said. I dont care how Boogie died, we all have our demons and problems. No matter what, he was a great man and he will be missed by this DB fan!

Owner of the Wild Leipold had a great story on wild.oom he wrote about Boogy. He talked about how he would not fight smaller players that he thought would get hurt. His statement was good reading

Mister Know it all that WAS a great statement. I remember watching the video of when they went to that Army boot camp place and there was Boogie and Owen Nolan and Boogie said something and then Owen looked at him and you could see the respect written all over Owen's face. I applaud the Boogaards for the decision they made to donate his brain for research. At least they'll know Derek's will be helping to improve the lives of others. Copyright © 2011 technowild

My heart and prayers to Derek's family and friends, his team and hockey fans across the nation. I cannot help but wonder, are we sacrificing our men and women who, no doubt, have a passion for their chosen sport, for our unending appetite for tougher and more violent oriented showmanship -- sadly, it appears that way to me...

Shame on the NHL, NYR, MN Wild, the Startribune, and Mike Russo, for covering-up for "one of your own." Whether or not it had anything to do with this young man's unfortunate death, per this article Derek B apparently had some issues that needed to be dealt with off the ice. While I agree these should be private matters, they are often made very public when it comes to entertainers. Theo Fleury, Bob Probert, Sean Avery, Jeff ? the radio personality from Kfan, etc. Selective disclosure of such issues is hypocritical. You can't have it both ways even though you may try hard as you can to do so. While he was a larger than life individual and a great guy, like many in society, Derek apparently was not immune from issues. Perhaps he should not have been playing hockey but taking care of himself first. But the pressures of being a professional athlete were too much. Get over it fans, professional hockey is just entertainment, not life. I sincerely hope that those who glorified his on-ice fighting will also take the time to humanize Derek as well by explaining these other matters to the younger generation. But somehow I don't think that will happen, and I would be very surprised that if the Startribune/Russo allowed this to be posted. Finally, what other lies are we being told?

Wonder if any of the professional leagues will reciprocate this exceedingly kind gesture by a concerned family? When you still have a league that fines players for how players wear their socks and jersey, yet ignores that helmets still arent fit properly (either their hair is too bulky for it, and even when its not, you still see players put helmets on almost like a baseball cap). Performance enhancment drugs are still as much in use as they were 20 years ago. Except now, you have facilities all over the country that provide perfomance enhancement training with nutrition that weren't around when I was in undergrad. Combine this with the drug use (Manny Ramirez) and some of these guys veritable machines. In the NHL, fights are just part of the show (see clip below). Hate to say it, but if you can't do the basics, a gesture like this is just putting the cart before the horse.