Dope talk

So Dick Pound figures a third of NHL players are juiced.
Pound has already been hit by denials from predictable quarters, the NHL and players' association shocked and appalled. Over at Sports Matters, Avi Schaumberg crunches WADA's own numbers to cast doubt over His Royal Poundness's calculator. Buried in the Globe and Mail's report this morning, too, is an allusion to the fluidity of the term "performance-enhancing", something to always bear in mind -- one man's chili pepper is another's cold pill; and how can you classify designer drugs when there are no tests yet to detect them?
Pound has never been shy about going through the media to make his case. He comes across as trying way too hard to be the Elliot Ness of sports doping, his long association and history at the IOC, an organization that makes FIFA look like a nursery school, inspiring nothing but skepticism, if not outright disdain. There's so much grandstanding, the temptation is to sound the clarion: Test Dick Pound.
Only problem with that approach is that it amounts to throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
The drugs are out there, new ones and better ones and impossible to detect, and there's still enough gray area that tougher testing penalties or not, someone's going to be taking them to get an edge.
That's not as good a headline, though. If Pound insists on putting a number on it, a little supporting evidence is the least to ask.
Or, in the way we put it around here:

Dick Pound is talking.
A rush of blood to the head
and calls of "shaddup"!

One more thing before the weekend: it wouldn't be a week without the Leafs shuffling the lines would it? And don't look now, but Marius Czerkawski has re-appeared. And fer crissakes, on the No. 1 line with Mats Sundin yet, as Pat Quinn gets on the loafers from Wednesday's non-effort.
Here's your latest combos out of yesterday's practice, from Ken Campbell:

Tucker-Sundin-Czerkawski
Domi-Lindros-Steen
Ponikarovsky-Allison-Antropov
Stajan-Wellwood-O'Neill
(In an emergency, break glass line: Kilger-Wilm-Belak)

(C.Y.)

Comments

[Arthur]

While Dick Pound has been predictably shot down by the tall foreheads in charge of NHL policy, I have a gut feeling he's correct.

Hockey players have been talking about taking their "Sudey's" (Sudafed - loaded with ephedrine, a banned Olympic substance) for years. Ephedrine was "banned" in Canada a couple of years ago...but a visit to your local supplement store will reveal that you can still buy it over the counter - the only difference now is that it can't be sold in bottles of 300 anymore, only 50.

If a hockey player doesn't think anything about taking a mouthful of Sudeys before a game, what about other drugs? Go to any gym, and walk up to the biggest guy there, and I bet he'll be able to hook you up with with steroids. A friend of mine has even purchased them at a supplement store - the owner keeps them under the counter! Again - I bet a large percentage of hockey players are doing it. The stakes are too high not to. And in years past, there was absolutely no risk of detection through testing. Heck, you can't even see the body of an NHL'er through his equipment - how is anybody going to know?

In addition - sorry Dick Pound, but there are now "stripping agents" available that will scour an athlete's system of any trace of anabolic steroids within 24 hours, so a guy could be on the 10th week of his cycle, learn of his pending drug test the next day, and be clean by the time he has to produce his pee-test in the bottle.

Not to mention human growth hormone STILL doesn't have a doping test available, nor insulin - one of the most anabolic ("tissue growing") substances you can put into your body.

Drugs in the NHL are probably a factor. However, 1.) testing will reveal nothing, 2.) there is always something new coming out that will beat the system, and 3.) Players will always be looking for an edge. Always. It's human nature.

A better question might be - how important is this? In baseball, we saw some of the most cherished records in the game devalued by rippling sluggers who gained 40 pounds in the off-season (*cough-Bonds-HACK*).

In the NHL, the league had to radically alter the game to get some pucks in the net.

So - where is the beef?

[Gary]

Only in Leaf Nation can one loss (albeit a bad one) cause such pain and anguish. Everybody just relax. It's a long season. You were expecting 82-0? While I think Marius C deserves a shot at some playing time and O'Neill needs to be sent a message, shuffling all the lines seems to be a bit of an over reaction as well. The buds are probably a .550 team, nothing more and nothing less. Can they make the playoffs and win a round? Yes. Can they win the Cup? Not a hope.

[Chris Corrigan]

Break glass line...jeez, I don't think any of those guys could even do THAT.

Kilger looked like a cursed man last night against the Canes. I was praying for him to finally get a goal so Lindros wouldn't beat the snot out of him in the shower afterwards.

Someone asked me the other day what the number one line was on the Leafs. My reply?

McCabe - Kaberle.

[Jlo]

Arthur: in response to your question, how important is this? Very. The reason Pound is pushing this is not because he knows it to be true, or that he has some vendetta against pro-sports. This is a serious health-risk issue. Jiri Fischer? Now, you might argue that these are pros (baseball and hockey players alike) and it is up to them to decide what they do to their bodies; however, the real health issue is that kids, all the way down to high school, know that in order to make it in the NHL or MLB or NFL they've got to have that extra edge. As a society, I think we are still in agreement that we need to protect our young. I'm not worried that Brian McCabe is popping pills. I'm worried that some AAA midget defenceman is.