The language used in this paragraph is almost like Boogaard wasn't even human, which a lot people didn't see him as. Words like "cleaved" "sliced" "large knife" and comparing his brain to sandwich bread doesn't surprise me because people that didn't really know Boogaard didn't see him for the real human that he was.

Branch uses Boogaard's fist as images of his two sides. With the outside of the fist, bloody and battered, that's what the hockey rivals and crowd sees and they expect a fight but on the inside of Boogaard's hand, hurt and in need of rescue, that's what Boogaard's family and classmates see and they expect a smile.

I noticed that Branch brings up Boogaard's height a lot and uses the word "big" repeatedly. As we go into Boogaard's past, we learn that he was picked on for his height and even though he kept a smile, he was still internally brought down by it. But I think his height is what fed him during hockey fights, he realizes that bigger is stronger in the hockey world and although he may not feel useful outside of the hockey world, he instead feels strong when the hockey game starts.

This sentence made me have a realization moment. These articles on Boogard's life seem incredibly negative at a lot of points so it's hard to think of when there are positives in his life. It's almost sad to read this sentence because knowing the outcome of Boogaard's life, you find out that it actually started at a positive point but ended in such a negative way.

Branch repeating the words "It meant" and continuing to follow that up with how his life was outside of hockey, shows the depth in Boogaard's life. From the beginning of this article, you get the sense that Boogaard may not have a happy life, but in this section you see that his life outside of hockey was actually happy and he enjoyed it without throwing any punches.

Reilly brings up the story of Danny and Tommy and it's really heart wrenching to read, especially because of how he worded their story together. The use of the word "pile" was used in two different ways in their story and I just find it really compelling that one word can mean two completely different things and can effect others in tremendously different ways.

I find it interesting that throughout the whole article, Reilly questions how the team will ever get replaced but this sentence shows a shift in events when people showed up to fill those holes. It's sweet and sad at the same time, showing that it can be extremely hard to patch that emotional connection but still knowing that time is always moving and there's always other people that care about what you're doing or going through.

Work and play gets brought up a lot during this article. You have men apart of a team for their job but they also tend to share their lives together outside of their jobs, doing things that don't require work and I think that their shared work and play time effected how the team felt when their "family" lost members due to 9/11, it made those feelings extra hard to deal with.