As that whole thing with Alex Rodriguez continues to drag on in the world of baseball, Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews took to the airwaves today on Sportsnet 590 and spoke candidly about performance-enhancing drugs in the NHL.
Does Toews think there’s a PED problem in hockey?
“I think it would be naive to say that there’s no one in the NHL that is trying to get the edge in that fashion,” said Toews, per TheScore.com. “But at the end of the day whether you get caught now or not, down the road at some point those sort of things come out as we’ve seen in Major League Baseball and cycling.
“Eventually... someone is going to save their own butt and throw you under the bus. And that’s your legacy. That’s what people remember: that you’re a cheater and you took performance enhancing drugs.
“I think guys that apologize and plead that they didn’t know what they were doing, I think they know exactly what they’re doing. So the more tests the better. It protects the guys that are being fair and are putting good things into their body. So I have no problem with (more testing).”
Per the summary of the new CBA, here’s how the NHL tests players for PEDs:
Drug testing in Training Camp (beginning in 2013/14 season), once during the Regular Season as part of “team testing,” and additional random, no-notice testing on individual Players: a) throughout the Regular Season, b) during the Playoffs, and c) during the off-season (no more than 60 tests per off-season and subject to NHL/NHLPA agreement on logistics and off-season testing protocols).
But despite the “enhanced drug testing policies and protocols,” there remain those who think the NHL has its head in the sand when it comes to PEDs, and that scandals are only a matter of time.
