At war with Torts
Branch notes in his book that Boogaard told one of his agents, Ron Salcer, that Tortorella treated him “without faith and respect.” Boogaard added that he and the coach would rarely acknowledge each other when they passed each other, and referred to the volatile bench boss among friends as “Little Hitler.”
Salcer called Glen Sather to discuss the matter and the Rangers’ general manager didn’t mince words, telling the agent that Boogaard was “in the worst condition of anyone on the team” and “he’s in no condition to be playing in games. He’s lucky to be playing at all. We’re just trying to get him into shape.”
Following Boogaard’s death, Salcer acknowledged that his friend and client had been “huffing and puffing” during Tortorella’s practices.
Leading up to his death, Boogaard was reportedly suffering from severe depression while holed up in his Manhattan apartment. He became addicted to pain killers and suffered bouts of vertigo whenever he attempted to drive or exercise in the month following the Matt Carkner fight.
However, by mid-March, he began skating on his own. In April 2011, he attempted to practice with the team. But loaded with medicine, he could barely stand and fell flat the moment he took the ice. The Rangers immediately sent him to rehab in Malibu, California. He was in the NHL/NHLPA Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Program. A month later, he was dead.
About a dozen Rangers and Sather attended the funeral in Boogaard’s hometown of Regina, Saskatchewan. Tortorella reportedly was unable to attend because he had surgery two weeks prior to the service and hadn’t been cleared to fly.
Former Rangers’ agitator, Sean Avery, who played with Boogaard under Tortorella in New York, trashed his former coach for missing the Boogeyman’s funeral in his 2017 book Ice Capades. Avery and Tortorella had publicly expressed their disdain for one another prior to their working together in New York. Avery used his book to grind his ax. Tortorella didn’t respond.
Wrote Avery: “I was sick to my stomach and [wife Hilary Rhoda] was there to console me and give me support, which helped stop me from doing something that could have landed me in prison. I have never felt more hatred toward someone in my life than I felt toward Tortorella at that moment. It was more of a shock than when I heard Derek had died. …Tortorella’s stated reason for missing the funeral was an inability to fly because of recent hip surgery. I can promise you right now that if I had been Tortorella and the doctors had told me not to fly, I would have taken a bus. …A coach not attending his player’s funeral is unheard of. But maybe it’s just as well he wasn’t there, since, in my opinion, the appalling manner in which he’d treated Derek after he was injured had been a factor in Derek’s decline and death.”
“Derek had an addiction to painkillers. The NHL knew about it, and Tortorella probably knew it, too. If he did, he sure didn’t seem to care. It seemed to me that Tortorella was trying to make life as difficult as he could for Boogey. Tortorella could give two shits about players who can’t help him win, whereas great coaches protect their players as long as their names are on the team’s roster. I reached my breaking point with how Tortorella was treating Boogaard and spoke to many people about it. We hated it and felt guilty that we could not stop the torment of Boogaard, but we played on, more for ourselves than for that lunatic running the show.”
Here is the Rangers’ official statement from the day Boogaard passed away. It included comments from Gary Bettman, Sather and team captain Chris Drury, but nothing from Tortorella.
Hockey heaven
Boogaard was referred to by many teammates in Minnesota and in New York as “the gentle giant” given his selflessness off the ice. As previously noted, he helped countless kids through the Garden of Dreams and paid for military members and their families to attend Rangers games at the Garden.
He also was heavily involved with Defending the Blue Line, a non-profit organization founded by National Guard soldiers that provides kids of military families full sets of hockey gear for skaters and goalies, pays for their association fees and ice time costs, and purchases tickets to games across the NHL.
“Derek was an extremely kind and caring individual,” Sather said in the team’s official statement, issued the day Boogaard passed away. “He was a very thoughtful person, who will be dearly missed by all those who knew him.”