NHL and NHLPA In Denial

[21pro]

I think you can find enough guys using Sudafed or some other stimulant to support his cause. Afterall, they wouldn't take it if it wasn't performance enhancing.

ask most NHL players and they'll say Sudafed was overated and they don't see it in the NHL anymore... same goes for those band-aid strips they used to use to hold their nostrils open wider for more air...it may work for track athletes, but, it just isn't kosher in hockey.

as for proof that not alot use perf. enhancers, i played jr. A with some guys that went on to pro, my brother plays college hockey in colorado and i've coached jr.A, and bantam AAA in Thunder Bay for a small stint. I've been around alot of hockey and in alot of dressing rooms... not NHL, mind you, but I do know where these players come from. From my experience, I know that the typical kid that goes on to a pro career in hockey has more of what it takes than what would require a little artificial jump. Most pros were great hockey players when they were 7,8,9 years old (did they use Sudafed then for an extra boost?, no.)... Ed Jovanovski's -who didn't know how to skate at the age of 14 and go on to be the NHL's fastest skater in All-Star competitions- are extremely rare... and i'm not suggesting that Ed is clean (he'd be one of the first i'd send to get checked)...

Bertuzzi, on the other hand is someone that most would think is a 'juice head'.. yet, he doesn't lift weights and said he can't bench 200 lbs. at the Canuck's annual fitness tests. Yet, he's one of the league's most valuable POWER FORWARDS. You just don't need performance enhancing drugs in the NHL...

I can repeat... You just don't need performance enhancing drugs in the NHL...

In fact, a study performed by the NCAA states that hockey has the lowest substance abuse test failures in all of their competitive team sport divisions.
www.ncaa.org
some of the quotes from the site:
"hockey players may be distinctly different from other college athletes in that drug use is extremely low when used to enhance performance."
ie. they try stuff, but most don't stay on anything...
"More than half (58%) of the collegiate hockey players admitted to trying ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, or amphetamines to enhance performance once at some point. "
-but-
"Pseudoephedrine was used currently and ongoing by 24%, and 11% admitted to using ephedrine within the last 30 days."

..so they try, but many don't like...

Now back to the bad boys of the NHL...

how many players can you name use performance enhancing drugs?

wow! you mentioned one. I'll add 2 more.

Gary Roberts, Ed Jovanovski, Cory Stillman are some questionable athletes, but they hardly makes up a 1/3rd of all players.

33% would be like saying all of: Bryan McCabe, Jason Allison, Jeff O'Neill, Tomas Kaberle, Eric Lindros, Alexander Steen, Darcy Tucker, and Mats Sundin all are always on some kind of Dick Pound's classification of perf. enhan. subs. All of them... All the time...

well, what are their respective drugs of choice then... I can't think of a drug each of them take? can you? other than Sundin and his brännvin that he likes to have at the BR... i don't know what these 8 players take... maybe they all smoke hashish... that's why they have such good lungs.


and what drugs are you talking about anyway? Dick Pound is concerned with ILLEGAL performance enhancing drugs, whether he says it or not... he is the authority on illegal performance enhancing substances and is only concerned with them. so much that he has some of the power to say what becomes illegal and what is tolerated. i assure you that he is not talking of 'tylenol for a headache so that you can enhance your performance by being able to concentrate better on the ice' or antihistamines, or the like. he means drugs that can get you into trouble.. not just steroids...but, drugs that should be illegal.

Otherwise, why would he make the point?

and, Hockey is more akin to the olympic sport of curling than weightlifting... the drugs (alcohol) come after celebrating victory or to ease with the sorrow of defeat.

Dick doesn't have supporting evidence and neither do you. But you probably know better. .

it would be simple to name more than 67% of the NHL players that are clean... harder to prove. but you gotta be an idiot to think i could undertake such a task when Dick Pound isn't doing it himself.

however... Dick Pound is an expert. Not an expert on drugs in the NHL, but an expert on perf. enh. drugs nonetheless. if he comes out with such a statement, he surely isn't concerned with just amino acids, creatine, etc.. he probably isn't even concerned with Androstenedione which some sports have banned. he is concerned with substances that are or should be 100% banned. That is his job.

 

[The Doctor]

I heard pound on the radio yesterday and he wasn't differentiating between banned and safe substances. The NHL's list of banned substances is considerably shorter than WADA's. I bet at one point in the season each player is in a situation where a steroidal or non-steroidal anti-inflamitory would help them through a nagging injury and get them back on the ice as quick as possible.

I think it's niaive to just tacitly dismiss the idea that the NHLer's don't use and wouldn't benefit from using. If that were the case, the profile of an NHL player would more resemble Martin St. Louis and Kyle Wellwood not Mats Sundin, Keith Primeau and Eric Lindros. Being bigger, stronger, faster has always been the goal and with the money that's at stake, there's motivation to do what's necessary.

The percentages are probably irrelevant for discussion purposes because when you get right down to it ther are lies, damn lies and then statistics. The rumours have always been there for the NHL and if there wasn't a problem then the NHL and the PA should just turn to Pound and say they'll adopt his testing proceedures and punishment guidelines. By burrying their heads in the sand and dismissing him, they create more questions about what they are trying to hide a la baseball, and foster a "see nothing, hear nothing" mentality within its loker rooms and board rooms.

 

[PHNINE]

I agree Doc, if the NHL has nothing to hide then adopt the stringent testing policies. Selig was so scared of testing his own players because he knew many were on it. If the NHL and NHLPA have nothing to fear and say that Pound's comments are false, then test away. Administer a league wide test right away. Isn't that the only way to shut him up, or prove him wrong. But no, instead they choose to start the name calling and "he has no proof" or "he doesn't know the sport".

As a hockey fan, of course I would like to think our sport is cleaner then that of baseball, football, basketball, etc., but the fact of the matter is that it is all professional sports, and there is billions of dollars being made here. The only way to show it is to test. Test test test....Anything else said is irrelevant. I don't care who Dick Pound is, I don't care about Betman, I don't care about Daly, all will come out once you test the players. And who cares about players rights...what about the fans hard earned buck that they pay to support the teams? Do they care about us? NO...so why should we care about the players rights? They need to be tested...all of them...

 

[A-ROD]

When Pound was put under pressure he changed his story from steroids to performance enhancing drugs. A lot of these drugs are issued to players as perscriptions for different ailments and injuries.

Professional sport in general has to come down alot harder on all abusers. I still believe a lifetime ban is in order. These guys make millions of $$$ and if they face a lifetime ban it will sink in for most of them. For the ones that don't get it...sooooo long.