WASHINGTON – As the Capitals continue to find their footing after recent changes to the coaching staff, one Pennsylvania columnist thinks he has figured out why Alex Ovechkin hasn’t been the dynamic player he has been in years past.
According to the Pennsylvania Observer-Reporter’s John Steigerwald, a long time Pittsburgh sports scribe, the Capitals center isn’t what he used to be because he is off the juice.
There are whispers and maybe even some out-loud conversations around the hockey world about Ovechkin’s problem being a lack of artificial help.
In other words, performance-enhancing drugs.
The guy was superhuman when he first came into the league. He had the hardest shot anybody had seen in years. Goalies around the league talked about how it was different from everybody else’s shot.
He’s taking about half as many shots as he used to.
Is any of this proof that Ovechkin’s performance was enhanced before, and now it’s not? No. But, you combine it with the fact that his doctor was charged with bringing PEDs over the border from Canada, and it gives you the right to be suspicious.
Add to that the fact a Washington D.C. chiropractor was investigated after he bragged about supplying steroids to members of the Capitals and Washington Nationals.
After all the tearful, indignant denials by athletes who were later found to be juicers, I’ve taken the position that if you’re performing at a near super-human level and your doctor is arrested for selling steroids, you are guilty until proven innocent.
The chiropractor Stigerwald refers to is Douglas Nagel, who was arrested in 2010 for purchasing anabolic steroids from a Florida dealer. Nagel told Thomas he worked with athletes in the D.C. area, bragging about his work with the Nationals and Capitals.
In an unsurprising turn of events, numerous outlets called Stigerwald’s claims out on the carpet, inlcuding Yahoo’s Ryan Lambert, who called the column “totally irresponsible.”
On Tuesday, the two met on Stiegerwald’s radio show, and butted heads for thirty minutes.
You can listen to that audio below:
What do you think? Does this columnist have a point? Or is he wildly off base? Let us know in the comments
