The New Jersey Devils announced that Brian Boyle would be replacing an injured Taylor Hall at this weekend’s All-Star Game. His already great story gets a wonderful new chapter.
This year’s All-Star Game is full of wonderful stories. There’s the complete dominance of the Tampa Bay Lighting, who send a league-high four players to the game. John Tavares could be representing the New York Islanders for the last time. Marc-Andre Fleury comes as a old hero in a new city. Josh Bailey and Brock Boeser have had incredible seasons out of the blue. Still, none of those stories come close to that of New Jersey Devils forward Brian Boyle.
All Devils fans know the story by now. He went from missing the first part of the season fighting Chronic Myeloid Leukemia to being a crucial part of the emerging Devils. Boyle has been an integral part of the team’s success (despite the current stretch of losing).
He was the talk of hockey when he scored his first goal of the season and admitted he cried. Boyle put the Devils on the front page of NHL.com more than any other player, including Taylor Hall who he’s replacing.
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Add into the fact that he’s returning to Tampa for the first time since being traded last season. The fans clearly still love him based on their reaction to his cancer diagnosis. Many of the players still wrote Brian Boyle on the Hockey Fights Cancer cards. He’s a beloved figure in that city after spending most of the past three seasons there.
Boyle’s season has been up and down, but why not send him to the All Star Game? He’s been much more of an offensive force than anyone expected. When the Devils need a faceoff win, they turn to Boyle. He’s playing on all phases of he game, including the power play. He already has five power play goals, more than he’s ever had before.
This is the perfect replacement for Hall. I talked about Nico Hischier replacing Hall earlier Thursday, but this is honestly a much better pick.
Boyle’s story won’t turn into the terrible start to 2018, it will be entirely positive. Everyone will talk about his miraculous recovery, paired with his play so far this season. This allows the Devils to go to the All-Star Game with a positive presence. That will help put this terrible stretch behind them more than Hischier would.