Almost nothing about Brian Boyle’s NHL career thus far has gone according to script. He was drafted out of Higham, MA as a center in 2003 and spent four years at Boston College. But this season, he was assigned to the Kings’ Manchester affiliate as a defenseman. He played forty-seven games there and was second amongst the league’s rookies with forty-three points (21-22-43). As you’ve likely gathered, he didn’t stay on defense that whole time.
He finally got called up to the NHL a couple of weeks ago but couldn’t find a flight from New Hampshire to Newark, NJ and ended up hiring a driver to take him to the game (five hours away). He got there five minutes before the puck dropped and missed part of the first period. His dad, who lives not too far away, might have come to his debut, except that he had pneumonia.
But if all of that sounds a bit out of whack, consider this. Boyle is also not following the traditional rookie plot-line of laying low, getting in his touches, and playing safe minutes. Instead, the kid is shooting and scoring, putting up numbers that are making the people who drafted him five years ago look like geniuses. (You know who they are. Most of them work in Dallas now.)
Boyle: Wrong Road, Right Destination (Inside Hockey) 
