‘This isn’t a movie; It’s a bad nightmare’: Former NHL star looks for answers to son’s murder

In his playing days, anything could be dealt with on the rink.

Any frustration, any problem, any gripe, it was fixed there and left there.

And there is good reason for that.

He was a seasoned veteran in the NHL with 12 years experience, an enforcer with a boxy six-foot-three frame, and a penchant for scrappy fights and mean checks. He captained the famed New York Rangers and played to more than 200 packed crowds at Madison Square Garden over seven seasons.

Pressure, it seemed, was nothing to fret about for Barry Beck. It was just part and parcel with the job.

When you're a hockey player, it's like this: You can take out anything, any frustration, by being physical," says Beck, three-decades removed from lacing up professionally. That's how you fix problems."

But Beck now faces a different kind of pressure, a foe that can't be handled with a pair of bruised fists.

He is trying to find those responsible for the death of his son and only child, the always smiling" Brock Beck, who was killed last month in a brazen stabbing that Beck says begs more questions than it does answers.

Brock, a 20-year-old who had been studying mental health and recovery at a college in Nova Scotia, was found on the driveway of 3063 Binbrook Rd. with stab wounds shortly before 2 a.m. on July 26. He was rushed to hospital where he later died.

Hamilton police say the attack may have been fuelled by road rage.

A confrontation" between Brock's 2011 grey Ford Fusion and a suspect car - a white, four-door sedan - at the intersection of Binbrook Road and Highway 56 preceded the fight on the driveway, police say.

The suspects followed Brock to the home on Binbrook Road, where he was attending a backyard gathering with about seven friends. The suspects later fled east on Binbrook Road, then north on Highway 56 toward Hamilton, police say.

Police say the suspects - of which they believe there are two - did not attend the gathering. There is no evidence to suggest a prior connection between Brock and the suspects.

Beck was in Hong Kong, in a different time zone and seemingly different world, when his brother phoned to say Brock was dead.

Don't tell me that," Beck recalls responding. Don't tell me that."

The head coach of Hong Kong's national hockey team returned to Binbrook a few days later. It's his first time in the neighbourhood in some eight years. He spent two weeks of quarantine in the home of his ex-wife. He couldn't attend Brock's funeral because of pandemic restrictions.

Every night, he lies sleepless in the bed of his late son, seeing his beautiful smile" and hazel brown eyes, feeling his presence in the walls.

I think of the trips we took together," says Beck. We didn't see each other often, twice a year maybe, but we always had a lot of fun. He was my only son, my only child, and those memories are very close to me.

The fact that he's not coming back is devastating for us. It's been an emotional roller-coaster."

Beck is at a crossroads. He says he trusts police with the investigation, but worries the public is often quick to forget about sudden tragedies.

People just go about their regular business after something like this happens," Beck says.

Beck says he has heard theories of what happened the night Brock was killed. He's spoken to dozens of neighbours near the driveway where Brock was found stabbed and to friends who were with him at the backyard gathering.

There's a lot finger-pointing," he says, but it doesn't lead anywhere. We're at a place where we need some help from the community."

Police said Thursday they have no update to provide in the investigation.

Investigators continue to look for two suspects: one man with darker skin and a perm-style haircut" who may have a muscular build, and a white man with longer hair worn pushed back." Witness accounts suggest there could be more people involved, police say.

The idiom that time heals all wounds offers little comfort to Beck and his family. When the wound is fresh, time takes the form of a looping apparition - and a reminder of why it seemed to have stopped.

We think of our families and the good he brought, and then you have a bad day," says Beck, and it's all you can think about. You just can't get it out of your head.

This isn't a movie; It's a bad nightmare."

Sebastian Bron is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sbron@thespec.com