He is one of the offbeat few that shock us/anger us/delight us/whatever us with their antics; they force us to feel something new about the game, and maybe look at things a little differently. Their first instincts are rarely the correct ones, but always the most memorable. These players bring us closer to the humanity of hockey through their humility. In a world of mundane statistics, and anonymous uniform of suit, tie, and black eye, it’s refreshing when a player can find his way in the game by (mostly) sheer wit, and not talent. Such players have been known to inspire “No obscene distracting of the goaltender” (in so many words) amendments to the NHL rulebook, move GMs to shell out offensive amounts of cap space dollars for a simple character guy, and even drag this disenfranchised hockey writer out of hiatus.
These players exist outside the game of hockey. While I fucking love Anze Kopitar and I think he’s a fantastic hockey player, I don’t know anything about him, I certainly don’t feel anything about him, I don’t know what he does or who he is outside of hockey (though there is a certain type of fan devoted to finding out this exact kind of thing). The casual fan might not know who Anze is, any non hockey fan will not know who he is, but mom and pop back home are watching Derek Boogaard discuss his Fight Camp on Fox News Channel and reading about Sean Avery in Newsweek, watching Alex Ovechkin on MTV Cribs. People on the outside- people not associated with the game in any way- know these personas; they associate the game of hockey, the NHL, with these players. In a way these characters do their part to define the game as it is today, alongside the finesse and genuine god-given-talents of guys like Sidney Crosby, not necessarily to us who are familiar with it, but those who are not. What harmony our beloved game works in when you think about it.
So you could see, at least in the smallest sense, why these types of players would be perhaps as desirable to an NHL organization as a 30 G a season, slick skating power forward. We don’t understand it because no matter what, if you love the game, you look at it from a fan perspective. And we hate it because it reveals that our professional athletes are –gasp- performers.
No matter what anyone says, the truth is: character is EVERYTHING.
I read a quote on this thing called Twitter from a newly hired AHL GM; he said that the organization was “looking forward to building a winning and entertaining team”. It struck me as a little misinformed in the instant, but then I thought ‘this is really the aim of all clubs, isn’t it?’ To build both a successful, skillful team, and an exciting experience for fans. As much as we as fans hate the idea of having something we love sold to us rather than actually feeling it for ourselves, the NHL is in the business of entertainment. Clubs want to market the team well, and ultimately sell the game. Naturally a big-name team like the New York Rangers has a need for players who are skilled and players who are relevant to the game.
I don’t know much about the New York Rangers but I do know they must feel this way. Perhaps it has always been part of the NYR aesthetic to house “lifestyle” or “situational” players (Laraque, Avery, to name a couple recent examples), some might claim they even created the concept in the game. Perhaps Glen Sather (NYR GM/Pres) is trying to rebuild “a dynasty” or something cliché and marketable like that, and wants Boogaard as his cornerstone goon. We wonder what would really make a GM place that much money and good faith (or not) on a player who is not only statistically and fiscally not worth it, but also a liability. What we are all too afraid to think is that maybe Boogaard isn’t there to play; he is there to just be, man. That 6.5 million dollars looks like a frivolous, idiotic, unnecessary extravagance of deal to us not in the business of selling the game, but the NY Rangers are sending a message that is lost among dollar signs and stats sheets: Derek Boogaard is relevant, this team is relevant, and we are serious about our relevance. Likewise That 6.5 million dollars didn’t just buy Derek Boogaard four years as a Blueshirt (and probably a nice Rover); it bought him a lifetime (or career-long) tag as a high-end goon, one of the toughest guys in the league, despite the outcome of this situation. And what both sides get out of the deal is essentially priceless.
From the outside, it seems to be an almost sarcastic price to pay for a fan favorite, regardless of how many Boogaard jerseys or name/numbers tees (two O’s, two A’s) fly off the shelves. Everybody loves a tough guy, and MSG has seen its fair share of blood spilled at the knuckles of some of the greatest. Derek Boogaard is an old schoolish tough guy that has seemed to fine tune and adapt his skill set and character to launch an unusually successful career in the modern game. Derek Boogaard’s job directly is to play a game, more specifically to enforce, throw fists where and when it counts, show up and go through the same motions as his peers- and indirectly to sell the game. And who ever decided that one’s net worth was directly related to one-ice minutes, or offensive production? The NHL does not pay hourly, or on a per goal basis, so all $-per-ice-time arguments should be obsolete. From the NYR standpoint, Derek Boogaard does his job, and he does it well.
In a larger sense, the signing has celebritized Boogaard to an even higher status, making him more worth the money the more people fuss about it. Paradoxically, by “overpaying” for Boogaard, the NY Rangers may actually have made him worth it, regardless of how the next four years go. Is it just promoting violent behavior in the sport? I say nay. Is buying, not building, character wrong? Maybe. But if clubs can use moderately valuable cap space to bring a little character to a team, I will never see the problem. Of course, these incidents like Boogaard’s are rare and often isolated; as strange as it sounds, image is something that is earned, Derek Boogaard didn’t become a covetable tough guy overnight just by being declared as one. Derek Boogaard “seduced” the system. By simply being his gritty, goony self, he made himself desirable to a team that is looking for exactly that kind of image. Of course, you can probably sell any piece of shit for $6.5 million dollars and people will think it comes in a solid gold toilet bowl. In that metaphor, Derek Boogaard is the piece of shit, and his career is the solid gold toilet bowl.
Peace + love.
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