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Jason Reed JANUARY 23, 2006 -- “It will never happen again.” These are the words uttered by Columbus Blue Jacket player Bryan Berard after testing positive for steroids. Funny but I think I’ve heard that before—not necessarily from him, but if you follow sports at all you can understand my cynicism. In a recent public statement, Berard said that the positive result was due to a supplement that he took over the summer while preparing for the NHL season. So, is Berard trying to tell us that it’s OK to cheat as long as it is during the summer or the preseason? Maybe my calendar is off a bit but if the NHL season started in October and if this sample was taken on November 12, I think it is fair for the average guy to assume that he wasn’t just taking the supplements before the summer. Berard would do good to not follow in the footsteps of cheater (oops, I mean steroid user) Rafael Palmiero and give lame excuses. A sample taken from Berard on Nov. 12 tested positive for 19-norandrosterone, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said. The steroid helps athletes add strength and muscle and lose weight. Berard was a potential player for the US during the upcoming Olympic games, thus he was subject to testing. Even if he is suspended from international play for two years, Berard dodged a needle (I mean bullet) from the NHL. January 15 is the first day that NHL players could be tested and since Berard peed back in November, Bettman can’t touch him—at least not this time. "No question, I'm embarrassed about it,'' Berard said. "There's nothing I can do about it now, other than accepting what I've done. We'll learn from it, it was a mistake and it won't happen again.'' "I have spoken with Bryan and he expressed great remorse,'' said Ted Saskin, the players' association executive director. "I remain confident that this is an isolated occurrence in our sport.'' The NHL began testing for performance-enhancing drugs this past Sunday for the first time after the league and the players' association came up with a plan in the new collective bargaining agreement that ended the season-long lockout. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly added, "The use of steroids is not a pervasive problem facing the National Hockey League. ... There have been dozens of tests administered to a wide cross-section of our players during this time period and Mr. Berard's is the only positive test of which we are aware.'' One can only hope that this does not turn into the type of problem that MLB is facing. I’m not naive enough to believe that Berard is the only player juicing up but I really don’t believe that it is as prominent as it is in baseball. So, let’s ask the question. How widespread is the steroid problem in hockey? The league will maintain it's virtually non-existent. But Montreal lawyer and World Anti-Doping member Dick Pound says it's as much as one-third. The only real data available is supplied by the International Ice Hockey Federation and IIHF numbers over a 12-year period tend to show that the NHL is closer in their figures. Prior to this season, the IIHF says 3,089 players (not all of them NHL players) have been tested in and out of international hockey competition since 1994, including the Olympics and World Championships, and only eight players tested positive, which is a meager .258 per cent. 40 players were tested leading up to the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, 120 during the actual competition, and none tested positive. I guess the first way to tell if players are juicing is to watch for 100 MPH slapshots to be launched from the opposing blue line. If in fact that happens, then we know we have a steroid scandal on our hands. Here’s hoping that it never comes to that.
2009 Western Hockey Network
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JASON REED
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