Skating Clean: A Story of Reconciliation (Part One)

In January 1975, Boston Bruins player Dave Forbes struck Minnesota North Stars player Henry Boucha in the eye with his hockey stick, leaving Boucha with double vision and an abruptly ended National Hockey League career.

Podcast host Bob Edholm was at that game. He was then a 21-year-old college student who sold beer and peanuts at Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota. But because he was working behind his portable bar in the concourse serving customers, Bob did not see that attack by Forbes on Boucha.

That incident in 1975, though, was something that Bob thought about often over the next half-century. He was especially interested to learn what happened to both Forbes and Boucha in the decades that followed.

In Part One of this two-part episode, Bob sets the scene. A capacity crowd had filled the Met Center to watch the hometown North Stars take on “the big bad Boston Bruins,” a team that had won Stanley Cup championships in 1970 and 1972. Bob cites articles in the Minneapolis Tribune that describe the attack by Forbes on Boucha, the injury Boucha sustained, and the suspension and criminal charge filed against Forbes as a result of the attack.