I want to cheer on Alexander Ovechkin as he gets closer to Wayne Gretzky’s lifetime goal scoring record. I really want to cheer on Joe Pavelski since he is with the Dallas Stars (my favourite team) and continues at 38 to be better than he was in his “prime” years.
It’s just that older players remaining vital long after some thought they would be, can be an indication of steroid use.
Pavelski is playing better than teammates Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn. Both are younger than him, and Benn even won the regular season scoring race, once. What is the secret to this apparent finder of the fountain of youth?
Then I also think of previous heroes. Joe Nieuwendyk won the most valuable player in the playoffs the only year Dallas won the cup. He said his heroics were induced by extra conditioning the summer before but perhaps it was a chemical that made him better that year.
Chris Chelios remained in the NHL until he was 48. That is unsurpassed in the modern era. Why was he thriving a decade after normal players thrive?
Am I losing my heroes? Shouldn’t there be evident roid rage in these players? Well sometimes there is. As with all players in this league. Was the normalization of fighting in the NHL proof that their players were doing steroids?
The Broad Street bullies were the culmination of violence in the NHL. Otherwise known as the Philadelphia Flyers, that team won the Stanley Cup two years in a row in the 1970s. They also led in penalty minutes.
Perhaps that fighting wasn’t an example of real emotion as the commentators like to call it. Was that an era of unchecked roid rage in the NHL?
Were steroids first tested on NHL players? How far back could this go? As much as I would like an answer, I’m unlikely to get one.
That’s the biggest problem with steroids and sports. We might never know the full truth.
