How NHL star inspired Panthers' diabetic goal-machine of the future

Tim Doherty was six and scared when he met the player who showed him what he could achieve with ice skates and diabetes.

Nick Boynton was the Boston Bruins enforcer in the early years of what would become a stellar NHL career when he spoke to the ice hockey-mad youngster.

Doherty knew the defenceman better as the pro with Type 1 diabetes.

He was the player he would aspire to emulate after he was diagnosed with the autoimmune condition - where the body cannot produce a hormone called insulin, which controls blood sugar levels - just months earlier.

Twenty five years later and on the other side of the Atlantic, prolific Nottingham Panthers forward Doherty has just realised he ended up following the career path of the Stanley Cup winner a lot more closely than he ever thought.

A year after Boynton played in the NHL All-Stars game in 2004, he found himself on the ice in Britain where he suited up for the Panthers after he chose to move abroad during the NHL lockout that resulted the 2004-05 season being cancelled.

Doherty is now in his third season with Panthers - where he won the Challenge Cup, Elite League Play-Offs Grand Final and European Continental Cup - but, until now, was completely unaware of the link the club has to the player who helped shape his career.

"It's incredible," Doherty told BBC Sport. "To find out he actually played for Nottingham is crazy.

"I got to meet him at the Bruins and I remember that being an amazing thing for me and just being inspired really.

"I probably couldn't tell you what the conversation was, but I'll never forget just meeting him and knowing that he was a pro hockey player who had diabetes - it taught me that diabetes should never hold me back from doing anything.

"Diabetes was a very new thing for me and my family. We didn't really know anything about it and at the time I loved hockey a lot, I still do, and I was obviously concerned if I was still going be able to play.

"It was a super important time and from that day on it's never really held me back."

More than two decades on from that life-defining meeting with Boynton, Doherty is doing much the same in his adopted city in England where he says the Panthers - a club where he scored 58 goals and provided 79 assists across 140 domestic league and cup games - has given him "an important platform".

Last season he hosted a diabetes community event immediately after a game, with his willingness to talk about his experiences resonating as far as far as Northern Ireland where he also met with a young Belfast Giants fan.

How he manages his condition while playing the world's fastest team sport is just part of the conversation, with the everyday demands of life with diabetes and how advancements in technology - monitors and insulin pumps - all being things he has opened up about.

Doherty's commitment to raising awareness also paved the way for Diabetes UK to link up with the club as its charity of the year for the 2026-27 season.

"Going on the road to Belfast last year I was able to meet a young girl and she ended up going on the [insulin] pump after that and I've heard that she's doing a lot better, so that was pretty cool to hear," he said.

"I don't think I'm anyone special, so to be able to influence someone's life is amazing."

When Doherty was the youngster seeking assurances as he and his family dealt with the "scary" reality of diabetes, he says the "support system" around him was vital.

"My mom was getting up at 2am every night to check my blood sugar and making sure I was alright for the first 10, 15 years of my diagnosis," he said.

There was also a picture on his bedroom wall, drawn by his next door neighbour, of NHL hall of fame centre Bobby Clarke which Doherty could look to for inspiration.

Clarke is a great of the game who not only captained the Philadelphia Flyers to two Stanley Cup triumphs in the 1970s, but also distinguished himself as sporting pioneer as an athlete that lived with Type 1 diabetes.

"I didn't grow up watching Bobby Clarke, but I knew how much of a NHL legend he was, and just knowing that he had diabetes made it even more special to me," Doherty said.

How Clarke would have dealt with diabetes decades ago is very different to how Doherty and modern day elite sport people do the same now.

What's not changed, Doherty stresses, is that it's a "24/7 job" to stay on top of.

Doherty is sat in the Panthers locker room at the Motorpoint Arena nonchalantly flicking through the blood sugar readings on his insulin pump as he prepares to hit the ice for training.

It is an everyday part of the 31-year-old American's routine and largely goes unnoticed by his team-mates but, with BBC Sport following the forward around this time, netminder Mat Robson asks about the machine and how he is plugged into it.

"Around training and games is when I'm most on top of it and trying to keep it as level as possible just so I can feel my best on the ice," he said.

And it's on that frozen surface where Doherty has his heart pumping in pursuit of glory where his body gets into a tug of war with itself as cold conditions, adrenaline and physical exertion can all impact blood sugar levels.

"The adrenaline's probably the trickiest part about it, to be honest," he said.

"Obviously your adrenaline spikes at 7 o'clock to 9 o'clock on a game nights so my blood sugar will spike with it and then the exercise will kick in so they're kind of competing.

"The adrenaline's bringing it high, the exercise wants to bring it low, so the next four hours after the game is probably the hardest part of just controlling it."

Doherty says he has learned to adapt to diabetes, which can mean just "rolling with the punches", but it is also something he refuses to let get in his way.

The titles he has won in Nottingham, and the career that has taken him from the University of Maine and included stints playing in the East Coast Hockey League in the US as well as Cortina in Italy, is testament to that.

"I'll get caught up all day, I'll just let it rock because you've got to enjoy it," he said.

"I never want to let diabetes interfere with my life or get in the way of a good moment like lifting a trophy."