I hope all my readers in the U.S. enjoyed Thanksgiving Day. And while readers in the U.S. might not have been looking, the world's leading anti-doping official decided to call out the NHL:
"I spoke with Gary [NHL commissioner Gary Bettman] and he said, 'We don't have the problem in hockey,' " Dick Pound told the London Free Press yesterday in an interview for a story to be published today. "I told him he does. You wouldn't be far wrong if you said a third."
The NHL's Bill Daly responded pretty angrily, suggesting that Pound doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to the NHL.
A few weeks ago at the National Press Club, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made it clear he thought the NHL didn't have a problem with steroids, after going on record that he thought steroids couldn't help with performance in ice hockey.
Is there a steroid problem in the NHL? I honestly don't know. But to suggest that steroids can't improve performance in ice hockey is disengenuous (though it looks like Bettman has abandoned that talking point) -- check out my friend Jes Golbez for the details.
Jes makes an interesting point here:
I
While I believe that the NHL does have a steroids issue, it’s hard to take anyone named “Dick Pound” seriously!