Rangers" Boyle Does Everything Bigger HINGHAM, Mass. - Brian Boyle was always the biggest one, whether at St. Paul Elementary School in the center of town or on the ice of the nearby Pilgrim Skating Arena, where he first learned to skate at age 3. If Boyle had grown up in Indiana and not in Massachusetts, and if his father had been a basketball player and not a high school goalie, maybe Boyle would be knocking down jump shots in Madison Square Garden instead of taking face-offs. Boyle is listed at 6 feet 7 inches, which would make him an ordinary-size swingman in the N.B.A. Instead, he is one of the taller players in the N.H.L., and lately, he has also been one of its most dependable. Boyle, 27, scored a goal in each of the first three games of the Rangers" first-round series against the Ottawa Senators, two of them game-winners. And he has been the center of attention - roughhousing the Senators" Erik Karlsson in Game 1, being targeted for a fight in Game 2, and being booed by Ottawa fans in Game 3. Game 5, with the series tied at 2-2, is Saturday at the Garden. Boyle is the seventh of 12 children, but there is no one of comparable size in his family. No one can explain it. "Then again, our oldest went to M.I.T., and we can't explain that either," Boyle's mother, Judy, said. He was self-conscious about his height, often put in older youth hockey groups because he looked so out of place playing with children his age. His high school coach, Steve Dagdigian, remembered Boyle lying about his true height. "He always said he didn't want to be Hal Gill," Dagdigian said, referring to the journeyman N.H.L. defenseman who also is listed at 6-7. Height is merely the most identifiable constant in Boyle's life. His competitive streak extends far beyond the ice rink, whether in an intense whiffle ball game in a friend's front yard or on the golf course, where Boyle has been known to talk in the middle of his opponent's backswing. "He would not give you a six-inch putt if 50 cents were on the line," said Rob Griffin, who coached Boyle on various youth hockey teams. Whatever he does, he wants to win. He wants to be the best. Boyle's teams at St. Sebastian's, an all-male Catholic school in Needham, Mass., often were the best, winning two New England titles. He endured a daily 52-mile round-trip ride from his home, with his mother stopping at Cracker Barrel for provisions for the long drive, usually at rush hour on one of greater Boston's most congested thoroughfares. "I had unbelievable support from my parents and siblings when it came to sports," Boyle said. All of the kids did. Our parents kept us active. It was a lot of fun. I was truly blessed and still am. The sacrifices they made, I will never forget. At 18, Boyle was drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the 2003 draft. But he played four years at Boston College, making three trips to the Frozen Four. With the Rangers, Boyle plays his natural position, center, where he can utilize his extraordinary hands and sense of vision. The Kings had other ideas. "They saw his size and thought he should be a defenseman," Boyle's father, Artie, said. They didn't like it that he was a big kid who didn't fight. In 2007, the Kings sent Boyle to their affiliate in Manchester, N.H., where he toiled for parts of three seasons. In February 2008, the Kings were playing in New Jersey and summoned Boyle for his N.H.L. debut. Boyle's driver got lost on the way to the arena, and he did not play until the second period. But Boyle scored on his first shot against Martin Brodeur. His second goal came in his next game three days later against his current teammate Henrik Lundqvist. Artie Boyle said the Kings" determination to make his son be something he was not - an enforcer-type defenseman - led to diminished ice time. Eventually, Artie Boyle had a meeting with Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi at the Logan Airport Hilton in the late spring 2009. "I told him if you're not going to use him, then trade him East," Artie Boyle said. A few weeks later, the Kings sent Boyle to the Rangers for a third-round pick. Christopher Botta contributed reporting from New York.