Bäckström didn't play due to testing positive for illegal substances

[THERETOOL]

if this guy got disqualified for taking sinus medicine Id have been sent to the Gulag ....

[hockeyville88]

Nice new siggy! Very appropriate.

Thank ya! All GI's mastery

[Kass]

Zetterberg and hank might? You're talking about elite players over 3rd line centers. They most certainly would have made a difference.

And we were missing Stamkos and Tavares who are both better than all 3 of them

[Baka]

And we were missing Stamkos and Tavares who are both better than all 3 of them

It isn't even close to comparable. When Canada loses a player they replace them with another all star player. You could make another Team Canada with the players who didn't make it and on paper both Team Canada's should end up in the finals together. If you want to make a comparison than compare Zetterberg, Hank, and Backstrom to the 3 players who replaced them. And Tavares and Stamkos to the 2 who replaced them.

[Monteeun]

Claritin isn't a prescription medication last time I checked. And pollen allergies are hardly life threatening.

If Gustavsson's medication had a banned substance in it, which I doubt it does, then he would have to ask for a special exemption or not play. It sucks, but rules are rules. When you start bending them for different athletes that's when you open a can of worms.

NHL and IOC banned substances are different so what he got away with in the NHL means nothing.

People think, "oh what's the big deal it's just allergy medication". But when these competitions are literally decided by fractions of a second, drugs that contain stimulants can make that extra difference.

Of course it likely wouldn't have had much of an effect for Backstrom, but they've gotta have a strict drug policy for all athletes to maintain credibility. It's up to the athletes to know and follow the rules, or not compete.

I'm guessing you never had allergies?

Also, i think they have to look at it sport by sport...if it was speedskating i would understand

[Monteeun]

if this guy got disqualified for taking sinus medicine Id have been sent to the Gulag ....

Same, i would've been executed lol

My inhaler

Nasal spray

i taken every from of allergy med

as well as some steroid for my health issue.

antidepressants

My olympic career was destroyed before it began lol

[Monteeun]

Nevermind

[Mustapha]

Disagree. Zetterberg is their best center. Hank and Backstrom are a toss-up, IMO.

Regardless, because of this Sweden was missing both top 2 centres. Imagine if Canada was missing Crosby and Toews going into the gold medal game? Sweden needed Backstrom for that game, Marcus Kruger isn't a #1 guy.

[RUPERTKBD]

Regardless, because of this Sweden was missing both top 2 centres. Imagine if Canada was missing Crosby and Toews going into the gold medal game? Sweden needed Backstrom for that game, Marcus Kruger isn't a #1 guy.

They needed all three of them and the Mule too. Even then, I think they lose. This particular team Canada was just too good.

The Swedes can look at this two ways. They can complain about losing their center in the finals, or they can thank their lucky stars that Finland didn't have their starting goalie available for the semi-final.

[ForsbergTheGreat]

They needed all three of them and the Mule too. Even then, I think they lose. This particular team Canada was just too good.

The Swedes can look at this two ways. They can complain about losing their center in the finals, or they can thank their lucky stars that Finland didn't have their starting goalie available for the semi-final.

Canada was by far the best team, but with tournaments like this (single game elimination), it’s such a crap shoot. Every team has so much skill, so many little things need to go right for a team to win. If that puck in the first doesn’t go off the post and goes in, the game completely changes, does Canada still win with Swedes playing extremely defensive and with the lead, who knows?

What happens in Latvia has one more puck go off a players skate and it bounces in to beat Canada, what would everyone be talking about right now? We all expected Canada to beat Sweden in the finals but yet we all still watched it, just in case that dumb luck happened.

In a seven game series I don’t think any team would come close to Canada but in a 60 minute game anything can really happen. Maybe Zetterberg, Sedin, and Backstrom do something that alters the game. We will never know but it’s not something that can be ruled out.

[RUPERTKBD]

Canada was by far the best team, but with tournaments like this (single game elimination), it’s such a crap shoot. Every team has so much skill, so many little things need to go right for a team to win. If that puck in the first doesn’t go off the post and goes in, the game completely changes, does Canada still win with Swedes playing extremely defensive and with the lead, who knows?

What happens in Latvia has one more puck go off a players skate and it bounces in to beat Canada, what would everyone be talking about right now? We all expected Canada to beat Sweden in the finals but yet we all still watched it, just in case that dumb luck happened.

In a seven game series I don’t think any team would come close to Canada but in a 60 minute game anything can really happen. Maybe Zetterberg, Sedin, and Backstrom do something that alters the game. We will never know but it’s not something that can be ruled out.

Yeah, flukes happen...just not that often. (that's why they're called "flukes")

The best team won and I am no more lamenting the fact that Sweden had to deal with injuries than anyone in the NHL is feeling bad for the Canucks in 2011...

[RustyRivets]

You're allowed a certain amount of pseudoephedrine (not sure how much) in your system. He was told by doctors before the tournament that the levels would be well below the allowable level so he didn't stop taking the medication. Nobody's fault but the doctors. And if somebody here thinks Backstom is juicing they should...Well, feel like an idiot.

[Tre Mac]

he's all hopped up on goofballs.

[viking mama]

It was an allergy medication he has been taking for 7 years.

6 players have failed the doping policy at the Olympics this year and 5 of them were positive for minor stimulants found in common food supplements.

Even outside of this in the NFL and MLB a few players have tested positive for simply changing an allergy medicine or taking an over the counter product when they get sick. At this point teams recommend that players have every supplement and medication they take get approved by the team doctor simply because they are familiar with whats in these things as well as the long list of banned substances that is often changed and altered every year.

If anything it's less suspicious with Backstrom because he has been taking it for 7 years and likely thought it wasn't an issue to keep taking a product that wasn't an issue before.

The medication was in his system at higher levels than permissable. And not just a smidge over. The Swedes may have been able to appeal that...& play him while awaiting the ruling. Instead that level put him in-line for more RE-testing....which forced him to miss the gold medal game. It was a suspicious level of pseudoephedrine & a drug that he clearly knew he would be monitored for.

I agree with Rusty Rivets. Blame this on the Swedish docs for not counselling their athletes better...or possibly him for being forgetful & self-medicating without their knowledge.