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NHL investigating Washington Capitals ties to Steroids

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ByPhil Krundle

May 27, 2009

A couple in Florida was arrested with an anabolic steroids stash worth a street value of $200,000 claimed to have sold them to Washington Capital players. Dick Patrick of the Washington Capitals has confirmed the NHL’s investigation “We welcome and will fully cooperate with the NHL’s investigation.”

Whether it is true or not has yet to be determined, but it is just a little weird that a man & woman from Florida would pick out the Washington Capitals out of all the other teams they could have said if they were making it up.

"All I can say is that we get tested two, three times a year and there's never been anybody that tested positive"
Donald Brashear: "All I can say is that we get tested two, three times a year and there's never been anybody that tested positive"

In other news, three Washington Capitals players just announced they were going to play in Russia, Viktor Kozlov, Sergei Federov and Donald Brashear. This brings to mind questions of the allegations when you consider the KHL had struggled to make ends meet last season and had a mandatory pay cut for player across the board.  Read “Everyone’s Going to the KHL” from the Washington Post.

I have heard that the NHL announces it’s drug testing with a bull horns weeks in advance before it tests players, and I would not be surprised if it was easily avoidable for many. My question is does the NHL have itself a gigantic Barry Bonds type problem with Alexander Ovechkin ? That’s what I want to know.

Here are some links to a few articles on the subject: “Steroids dealer says he sold to Nationals, Capitals after Florida bust” and “D.C. teams looking into statements made in Polk steroids case” from Tampa Bay online.

8 thoughts on “NHL investigating Washington Capitals ties to Steroids”
  1. I am concerned that if this comes out to be true, it will hurt the one sport I felt was different than all the rest. The one thing about hockey players compared to other sports figures, I`ve always beleived the majority of these players were made from a different mold. Hopefully for the Capitals sake, and the NHL, this doesn`t become a bigger issue.

  2. Wasn’t there some rumors that steroid use may have led to the death of Alexander Cherepanov. You can’t take too much for granted when it comes to who may or may not be doing them.
    The Capital connection could be that many of them live in Florida. I think Fedorov’s family is there and Kozlov also. Ovechkin on the other hand has spent his summers in Russia where he’s been rumored to be searching for a dentist to fill in that missing tooth.

  3. I would bet that it’s not the higher echelon players like Ovechkin, Backstrom or Semin as they play on the world teams that come under Olympic drug testing rules which are pretty stiff. Much stiffer than the NHL’s random but 3-week warning tests.
    Yet, don’t you think that Mike Green’s face is looking a little bit rounder -sort of on that Barry Bonds progression cycle. Boom -Boom -Boom

  4. I have got to say that I hope this does not pan out to be true. I think it would be a black eye for the NHL. I like to hold the character of the NHL to a higher level. I think this would hurt the image of this great sport. Sure, who among us wouldn’t want Ovechkin’s image tarnished somehow, but not like this. This makes the league look bad.

  5. I guess the NHL needs to put a big asterik beside the Ovechkin scoring championship and MVP from last year.

    *was on steroids when he won this.

  6. Does this mean the reigning MVP Ovechkin won his title and Sporting News most valueable player on a roided up team or he is roided up himself? It’s no wonder Malkin has had nothing to do with him, he was probably pushing the stuff on him.

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