Quote Originally Posted by Beanflicker View Post
Quote Originally Posted by El Kabong View Post
I often wonder why steroids never took hold in hockey. physical play demanding schedule long season....made me wonder.
PED's are as big a part of hockey as any other sport, I would imagine. The NHL's drug testing policy has always been very lax - for a long time (and still to this day as far as I know) they only test during the off-season.

Hockey's never been in the spotlight for steroids because there really haven't been any big steroids scandals like in baseball and football. People don't think about it because the NHL is mostly made up of medium-sized white guys. During the huge steroid booms of the 80s and 90s, the faces of most mainstream sports were jacked super athletes, while the face of hockey was a lanky 170lb white guy with not a hint of a muscle on his body.

Where there's big money and lax testing, there's gonna be PED use for sure.
I agree... just because people aren't testing positive doesnt mean nothing is going on, there are so many different peds that can be used too not just steroids... blood work and other shenanigans can boost endurance and recovery a huge amount which would be a great help when you're playing up to 4 games a week.. Just look at lance armstrong and cycling, lance took a lot of different stuff but never tested positive but it is like a millitary operation and very well planned passing drugs tests becomes pretty easy.. A lot of drug cheats in sports aren't caught by tests but by police operations or whistle blowers.. I honestly think it's only the little guys who cant afford to plan a large elaborate doping problem that get caught..

I would be amazed if drug cheating isn't rife in north american sport :S, the money is so big, the testing is not that intensive and these leagues are pretty much their only option to make huge money so why wouldn't they. i agree with you there