Working The Redline ep 9

While the 90s were an incredibly tough era to play in, the game was at a point where scoring was still expected and something that still came with tough guys. Tie Domi scored 15 goals one year, Bob Probert put up 44 points one year and even Joe Kocur even scored 16 one year.  

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/c5984e_e7d0dee33e114d258e542666eebc2786/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Now if you wanted to look at the real straight forward enforcer only guys you might bring up McSorley, Schultz, and Chase but these guys could also play. On the other side of this we have guys who played for the sole reason of fighting, guys like Derek Boogaard.

Derek Boogaard was the perfect fighter specific guy, ill give some reasons.

1. Boogaard’s nickname was the boogyman, don't need to same much more

2. Boogaard played nearly 300 NHL games racked up over 580 PIMs and only had 16 career points

3. He was 6’10 and almost 260 pounds, growing up in Saskatchewan

Boogaard played a total of 6 years in the western league racking up games with the Regina Pats, Prince George Cougars and the Medicine Hat Tigers before making the jump professionally to the Louisiana IceGators. In his first 33 pro games he attained a very impressive 240 PIMs. He then made the jump to the AHL and had 466 PIMs in 109 games over a 2 season span. It was in 2005 when he made his NHL debut and skated for the Minnesota wild where the story of the Boogeyman made it to the largest stage in hockey. 

While his PIMs number never reached or even stood out to the numbers he put up in the minors, he still eclipsed 100 3 times and got as high as 158. Boogaard was feared around the league and was definitely a thought in other enforcers minds when they would roll into St Paul for a game with the Wild. 

One wild story with Boogaard is when he fought Ducks enforcer Todd Fedoruk. Fridge, as he was called, explained he was in a really vulnerable situation with Boogaard and knew that he was in trouble. He attempted to swing a back fist to try and swing Boogaard around, but as he moved, Boogaard swung and connected flawlessly. Fedoruk described it as ‘the face broke’. Brad May was one of his linemates and was around for a lot of Fedoruk's fights but this one he knew was different, he knew immediately that he was hurt when helping Fedoruk up he was ouing and awing that Fridge was hurt. Branko Radivojevic, who was played with Fedoruk in Philadelphia was leaning over the bench giving it to his former teammate for losing the fight, all of a sudden loss his smile quite quickly as Fedoruk had gotten closer trying to get back to locker room and the wild players had realized his face was indented from the punch from Boogaard. His fighting style was like no other, he had to punch from almost his hip because he was so much taller than his opponents which made it so hard to fight with him. It's honestly a frightening scene but the video just goes to show how strong Boogaard really was. Ill throw the video below, its got like 375k views on it, pretty cool. 

Boogaard vs Fedoruk

Derek Boogaard unfortunately passed away in 2011 when he was only 28 years old.