Are the Playoffs Rigged? (Put on Your Tinfoil Hat, We're Going In...)

[Kumquats]

What about if Toronto wins the cup or goes to the finals?

I disagree.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/attendance

4 of the top 7 attended teams are Canadian.

Toronto is the 5th most attended team. They can keep losing and still sell tickets. Same with Montreal.

[Batmania]

http://espn.go.com/nhl/attendance

4 of the top 7 attended teams are Canadian.

Toronto is the 5th most attended team. They can keep losing and still sell tickets. Same with Montreal.

How does Chicago winning (the #1 attended team) fit into the plan?

[TOMapleLaughs]

Good question. Certainly those seats in Chicago were all full before they started winning a ton of games.

Yeah, i don't see why Chicago would benefit from being propped up. Also don't see why the league would like a huge US market to be successful. They'd stand to gain nothing.

[Ronalds.Kenins41]

Good question. Certainly those seats in Chicago were all full before they started winning a ton of games.

Yeah, i don't see why Chicago would benefit from being propped up. Also don't see why the league would like a huge US market to be successful. They'd stand to gain nothing.

They used to have the lowest attendance in the league and now it's the highest.

In 2007 they had a ownership change according to the video.

[Batmania]

They used to have the lowest attendance in the league and now it's the highest.

But why were they the lowest attended for a few years?

[Batmania]

Good question. Certainly those seats in Chicago were all full before they started winning a ton of games.

Yeah, i don't see why Chicago would benefit from being propped up. Also don't see why the league would like a huge US market to be successful. They'd stand to gain nothing.

So how has Carolina's attendance been since winning the cup? Tampa?

Chicagos seats were more or less full for a long time. It was a very short period (7-8 year) where their attendance was low. Those would be the years where the team was run like it was a dog fighting ring.

[TOMapleLaughs]

Carolina and Tampa didn't go the way of Atlanta either. Could've though.

[Ronalds.Kenins41]

But why were they the lowest attended for a few years?

you cut out my full post. It was a ownership change. Look at Phoenix and dallas they are doing better cause of a ownership change. Just like Bettman said you need good ownership for a team to do well.

Shortly after the death of his father, William W. Wirtz, Rocky assumed control of the Blackhawks. Rocky Wirtz "believes in spending money to make money," in marked contrast to his father's thrifty management style.

[Batmania]

you cut out my full post. It was a ownership change. Look at Phoenix and dallas they are doing better cause of a ownership change. Just like Bettman said you need good ownership for a team to do well.

Shortly after the death of his father, William W. Wirtz, Rocky assumed control of the Blackhawks. Rocky Wirtz "believes in spending money to make money," in marked contrast to his father's thrifty management style.

I think I quoted it just before you edited. Sorry about that.

If there's a hockey hell Bill Wirtz is rotating in it.

[Pears]

The amount of stupid in this thread is baffling.

[Batmania]

Carolina and Tampa didn't go the way of Atlanta either. Could've though.

Not really.

That also doesn't really give any depth to the argument you're making. It's a tough question to find an answer to though; can't fault anybody for not knowing.

[apollo]

So if it's rigged, did they pay Luongo not to stop Pucks and the rest of our players not to score goals against Boston?

Two 1-0 shutouts.

[Ronalds.Kenins41]

Two 1-0 shutouts.

Two 4-0 nothing shutouts

on a Wednesday.

[Ronalds.Kenins41]

Carolina and Tampa didn't go the way of Atlanta either. Could've though.

Florida's next

[Caboose]

As dumb as this thread is, he has a point with the PEDs.

Guys like Lapierre and Galiardi putting on 30 lbs in one summer, guys like Ovechkin and Mike Green playing 30 mins a night.

The NHL can't expect us to believe they've never caught anyone juicing.

[BanTSN]

If there was no ped abuse in the NHL, then why did the NHLPA, who's now headed by the old union boss of the MLB, have all old samples destroyed?

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/destroying-samples-nhl-drug-testing-policy-gets-curious-165627696.html

It's because Fehr saw what could happen if you don't.

You're goddamn right the players are on PED's, and you're goddamn right the players are scared of being caught.

[BanTSN]

I thought everyone knew that Bettman handed Tampa and Carolina cups. Not to mention Dallas and Colorado. Anaheim and LA?

The NHL has needed success in the south to boost revenue. With that comes... Y'know... Cups.

Surprised that Phoenix hasn't at least been to the finals yet, but since the Nhl took over for that little bit there, it might've been a bit TOO shady to accept.

Florida's next? You bet.

Gotta hand it to Bettman though. The NHL's expansion down south sure has been more effective than the NBA's expansion up north.

[Ronalds.Kenins41]

TOML is right about the PED's and many other stuff(not everything though). The people who are commenting on the thread clearly haven't taken the time to read it in it's entirety. Here is a recent article about PED's in the NHL.

Any sports fan in North America can tell you about the steroids problem in Major League Baseball. It’s the hot topic of discussion throughout the sports world.

But, what many don’t think to question is the NHL and whether or not there’s a problem with performance enhancing drugs in hockey.

And so begs the question: Is there a PED problem in the NHL?

“I think it would be naïve to say that there’s no one in the NHL that is trying to get the edge in that fashion”, Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews told Sportsnet The Fan 590. “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.”

Following the lockout that shortened the 2013 season from 82 games to just 48, the NHL and NHLPA agreed to expand the league’s random drug testing to include random tests during the playoffs and offseason in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, according to NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly. Also written into the new CBA is an expanded list of prohibited drugs.

It’s rarely ever talked about, but it could very well be an issue that is flying under the radar at the moment. If that is the case, hockey fans could have a PED scandal fly in their faces in the future, similar to the way the steroids scandal did to Major League Baseball fans. In an anonymous poll conducted by ESPN The Magazine, 20% of NHL players polled said that they believe some of their teammates are taking PED’s. While this number appears to be low, consider that only 30 players were polled, and of those 30, only six said they believe some of their teammates use PED’s. There could easily be many more players who feel some of their teammates are taking PED’s.

Since the inception of a PED testing program in the CBA following the lockout that cancelled the 2004-2005 season, only two players have ever been caught, and beyond that, only one of them was suspended. New York Islanders defenseman Sean Hill was suspended for 20 games in 2007 for violating the league’s drug policy. Florida Panthers goalie Jose Theodore was busted in 2006 for testing positive for a substance that could have been used to mask the use of PED’s, but he sought a medical exemption for the substance and was subsequently excused. There was no sudden flurry of positive tests, and thus there was no scandal that followed. 2,011 players have appeared in at least one NHL game since the 2004-2005 lockout ended. Only one out of 2,011 has tested positive. It’s not a big surprise, considering the fact that PED’s can’t help hockey players produce points the way that they help baseball players hit home runs.

But, there are many players who still claim that steroids are a problem in the NHL. Former Montreal Canadiens enforcer Georges Laraque wrote quite a bit about steroid use in the NHL in his book, “The Story of the NHL’s Unluckiest Tough Guy”.

“I have to say that tough guys weren’t the only players using steroids in the NHL”, Laraque wrote. “It was true that a lot of them did use this drug, but other, more talented players did too. Most of us knew who they were, but not a single player, not even me, would ever think of raising his hand to break the silence and accuse a fellow player.”

Laraque, while refusing to accuse any players by name, gave hints as to what to look for.

“First, you just have to notice how some talented players will experience an efficiency loss as well as a weight loss every four years, those years being the ones the Winter Olympics are held. In the following season, they make a strong comeback; they manage a mysterious return to form.”

The PED testing that is done by the International Olympic Committee, as well as the International Ice Hockey Federation, is as strict as it gets. Testing is done to detect a wide range of banned substances, and is done in conjunction with the World Anti-Doping Agency. Numerous athletes from various sports, including hockey, have tested positive for a banned substance since the introduction of PED testing in 1968. However, none of the hockey players that have ever tested positive for a banned substance were NHL players at any point in their careers. If NHL players truly are using PED’s, then why haven’t any of the NHL’s top players been busted under Olympic drug testing? Every country that is participating in the Winter Olympics with an ice hockey team must submit to the IOC and IIHF their long roster. This roster consists of what will eventually be their 25 man roster, their 48 man camp invitation roster, and then even more players that could be invited to camp in the event that a player declines their invite, is injured, or is unable to attend due to other reasons. The NHL sends players from the USA, Canada, Russia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Austria, and even Belarus to play in the Winter Olympics every four years, and none of those players have ever been caught. Could it be for the reasons Laraque gives? Perhaps. But, it’s far more feasible that NHL players are not using steroids.

At least not the skill players.

Laraque also claims that the enforcers and tough guys of the NHL would use steroids to gain weight before making it to the professional level, and would then rely on substances such as ephedrine to desensitize them as a way to prepare for fights.

“Before a game, as I would warm up on the ice, I would always look at the tough guy on the other side”, Laraque said. “If his arms were trembling, if his eyes were bulging, I knew for sure he wasn’t going to feel any of the punches I would give him.”

While it may not be very far-fetched, the fact of the matter is that there still has only been one player to have ever tested positive for PED’s under the league’s new testing program.

Porter Fischer, a former Biogenesis Clinic employee who is now the whistleblower (or snitch) in the ongoing MLB investigation into PED use that has come to be known as the Biogenesis Scandal, said this summer that he knows of up to a dozen athletes who are still unnamed from the MLB, the NBA, the NCAA, the pro tennis tour, MMA (mixed martial arts), and boxing who did business with the Biogenesis clinic. At the same time, Fischer said that the clinic didn’t have any clients from the NHL.

Obviously, there are other places to go to and other ways to get PED’s, and even HGH. To use Jonathan Toews’ words, it would be naïve to think that no player in the NHL has ever tried to acquire such substances since the 2004-2005 lockout.

But again, with the NHL’s participation in the Winter Olympics every four years, and even the World Championship tournaments put on by the IIHF every year, it would be difficult to imagine any of the players that represent their countries in these events taking steroids or HGH.

However, the tragic case of the late Derek Boogaard shows that maybe PED’s aren’t the problem. Maybe the problem is prescription drug addictions.

According to Boogaard’s father, he was able to obtain numerous prescriptions to the sleeping pill Ambien. There is a great deal of talk surrounding the NHL and Ambien, and the league is just now beginning to look into the problem.

“I’ve been on teams where it’s (Ambien) pretty out in the open”, longtime AHL journeyman and former New York Islander Mitch Fritz told John Branch of the New York Times. “… Guys will say: ‘I have Ambien. Need an Ambien?’”

Medically, Ambien isn’t thought to be addictive if it is taken properly, prolonged use isn’t recommended and it could lead to a dependence on the drug. Ambien use wouldn’t help players perform any better on the ice, but it would help them with their sleeping patterns. NHL players have hectic travel schedules, and sometimes travel across the country twice in under a week. Such travel undoubtedly wreaks havoc on players’ sleeping habits, and the use of sleep aids surely help players get a good amount of sleep. Now, under the new CBA, the NHL has made it a legitimate concern that they are monitoring. Derek Boogaard had received as many as 25 prescriptions for Ambien from 10 different doctors in a span of six months prior to his death. Under the new CBA now, however, every team must designate a person on staff to keep track of the players use of such prescription drug use by recording and monitoring each player’s use.

“I’ve been taking it (Ambien) maybe every other night right now”, Colorado Avalanche winger P.A. Parenteau told Adrian Dater of The Denver Post in February. “The other night, we got back from a road trip at 4 a.m. and I’m like ‘Ok, I need some.’ You try not to use it too often. I usually just take half a pill.”

“It’s certainly an important issue, which is why we put some things in the CBA”, NHLPA spokesman Jonathan Weatherdon said. “Things like the practices no earlier than nine hours later after landing, where hopefully you don’t have a situation where players have to rely on sleeping pills, because they have more time to sleep and don’t have to rush to get to sleep because of an early morning practice. Teams have tightened up on the use of Ambien and are making sure that guys are educated on making sure they are taking it as prescribed.”

“Used properly, it can be a useful drug”, Avalanche defenseman Ryan O’Byrne told Dater. “But obviously, there’s been circumstances when it’s been overused. But sleep is an issue, especially in the Western Conference. We get in later than teams in the East, and when you have to play again the next night, or have a practice the same morning, it can be tough to get enough rest.”

“I’m not sure it was ever a big problem back in the day, but maybe that’s because some of the drugs today didn’t exist back then”, former NHL coach and General Manager Scotty Bowman said. “I think most hockey players, with all the physical activity they do, don’t have trouble sleeping. But I’m sure some players have problems and need to take something sometimes.”

“Sometimes you’re just on the go so much, it’s hard to find time to rest”, Avalanche defenseman Jan Hedja told Dater. “You think you can get by without it sometimes. But you can’t. You have to get your sleep.”

[TOMapleLaughs]

I like how Toews basically said, "If i'm going down, you're all coming with me." Referring to his current and ex-Hawk PED playoff buddies.

But more than one team has done it. And while the PA and the league just wants to sweep it under the rug, eventually somebody's gonna come clean and/or get busted.

If people down there cared about hockey as much as baseball, this would already be done.

[Batmania]

I'm not sure what it has to do with rigging but I always figured PEDs was something that was known about that every league just doesn't want to deal with it. Until it becomes a big public spectacle as it did for the MLB and then they have to put on a show as well.

I think Dickie Boy was being generous in thinking only 1.3rd of NHL players use PEDs. Especially when (iirc) his definition of a PED included energy drinks and caffeine.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/pound-still-critical-of-nhl-drug-policy/article4179954/

Dick Pound says Georges Laraque's allegations about performance-enhancing drugs in the NHL reinforce what he himself said six years ago.

Pound, then president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, raised eyebrows in November 2005, when he said as many as a third of NHL players were using some kind of performance-enhancing drug.

“Anybody who pays attention to these things already knew that,” Pound said Monday from his Montreal law office. “The only organization in denial was the NHL.”Laraque, a retired hockey enforcer, wrote in his new book that he knew players, not just tough guys, who used steroids and stimulants while he was in the league.

Pound's 2005 assertions brought vehement denials from the NHL, the Players' Association and some players.

Pound has been an International Olympic Committee member for 33 years. He'll be inducted into the Canada's Sports Hall Of Fame in Calgary as a builder Tuesday alongside hockey star Ray Bourque, CFL kicker Lui Passaglia, soccer player Andrea Neil, triathlete Peter Reid and Paralympian Lauren Woolstencroft.

While president of WADA from its inception in 1999 to 2007, Pound publicly singled out sports organizations he thought turned a blind eye to doping by their athletes.

Laraque, who retired in 2010 after playing almost 700 career games, writes in The Story of the NHL's Unlikeliest Tough Guy that the NHL only began policing drugs in his final years in the league.

Pound isn't sure it's working.

“When you see some of the stuff occurring on the rinks these days, you don't know whether you're dealing with people who are playing the game in a steroid rage or not, but some of these head shots are not accidents,” he said.

The NHL and NHLPA agreed on a drug testing policy in their collective bargaining agreement in July 2005 after the lockout of 2004-05.

A first offence is a 20-game suspension and referral to the league's behavioural health program. The second is a 60-game suspension. A third violation is a permanent suspension with the right to apply for reinstatement after two years.

Defenceman Sean Hill is the only player to be suspended under the policy. He served a 20-game ban in 2007 when he played for the New York Islanders.

Colorado Avalanche goalie Jose Theodore and Islanders defenceman Bryan Berard failed out-of-competition tests in 2005, but neither was suspended by the NHL because its drug policy didn't take effect until Jan. 15, 2006.

Pound maintains there is a gaping hole in the NHL's drug strategy because players are tested only during the pre-season and regular season.

“They still don't test in the off-season,” Pound said. “If you've got an IQ higher than room temperature, you know they can do this program for a number of weeks and have the stuff all flushed out of your system and still get the benefit of it.

“If you know you're not getting tested before the season begins, it's an invitation to do it in the off-season.”

According to the PA's website, testing is conducted by a private lab out of California, which Pound says is not arm's length enough.

“It's not being independently done,” he said. “The NHL is doing their own testing.”

The NHL tests players for substances on WADA's banned list except for human growth hormone. The NHL won't include HGH until it is negotiated into a new collective bargaining agreement. The NFL and Major League Baseball are also still working on testing for HGH.

The NHLPA told The Canadian Press on Monday that performance-enhancing drugs are “an area that will be reviewed as part of the upcoming CBA talks between the league and the NHLPA.”

Laraque doesn't identify players who used steroids in his book and indicated there was a code of silence around the subject in the dressing room.

“It was true that quite a lot of them did use this drug, but other, more talented players did too,” he wrote. “Most of us knew who they were, but not a single player, not even me, would ever think of raising his hand to break the silence and accuse a fellow player.”

Pound still finds athlete secrecy around the issue frustrating.

“One of the most disappointing things I found in WADA was the reluctance of athletes who are being cheated out of what their performance deserves to say anything about it,” he lamented. “They just sort of take it. The organizations are much more vicious with the whistle blowers than they are with the folks using the drugs.”

But Toronto Maple Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf said Monday he's never witnessed evidence of players on performance-enhancing drugs.

“I was in the dressing room pre-lockout for training camp. Never heard (about it) nor saw it,” Phaneuf said. “I've never, ever seen it.”

Ottawa Senators centre Zenon Konopka was surprised by Laraque's assertions about the use of performance-enhancing drugs in the NHL and questioned the validity of those statements.

“I don't know what his reasons are to define it as a problem, but it's like most things in life that people don't get enough information and shoot their mouth off about something before they get all their facts,” Konopka said.

“I think Georges probably should have done a little more fact-finding himself before making comments that maybe he'll regret.”

Pound says his statement six years ago was based on information gathered from players, referees, coaches and doctors.

“It's sort of anecdotal, but very consistent,” he said.

While Pound wonders if Laraque will be shunned by the hockey community because of some of the contents of his book, the former IOC vice-president hopes the book gets read.

“If people read it and buy into it, that would be great,” Pound said. “You throw the challenge up to the NHL and say ‘OK, you guys have been saying there's no problem here. Here's written evidence that there is. What are you going to do about it?'

“It will be very interesting to see what (NHL commissioner Gary) Bettman would say about that.”

Bettman himself has acknowledged the need for better testing. Prior to the 2009 Stanley Cup final, the NHL commissioner said during his state of the league address that he was in favour of year-round testing and an expanded list of banned substances.

However, a deal with former NHLPA boss Paul Kelly was never reached.

The NHL did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Laraque's drug allegations.