Owner Mark Just says the team’s stance on performance enhancing drugs is cut and dried.
LEWISTON – Not on my team, baby.
That’s the answer Maineiacs’ owner Mark Just had on Wednesday when asked about the allegation that between 50 and 60 percent of players in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League are using supplements to enhance their on-ice productivity.
“If we know af anything like that on this team, they’re gone,” said Just. “Even when we are scouting around the league, Mario (Durocher, the head coach) knows a lot of what goes on in this league. If there is a sniff, even one hint, that a player is involved in any sort of performance enhancers, we’ll stay right away from that player, regardless of hockey talent. That’s just not an element we want on our team.”
And while Just can be viewed as removed from the team, if only by distance (he lives in the Chicago area), other officials closer to the team are in the players’ lives every day.
On Tuesday, assistant coach Ed Harding addressed this issue, saying that he had never seen anything on his watch. Wednesday, team trainer Tom Bourdon voiced his opinion.
“We educate all of our players,” said Bourdon, who has researched the topic of ephedrine use at length. “They are all told at the beginning of the season what is and is not acceptable. We tell them that they don’t need to use anything to enhance their performance if they work hard and follow our plan.”
Bourdon said that there are rules in place to prevent players from openly taking any supplements, and that included creatine and most other over the counter medication such as Sudafed.
“My position on creatine is that we don’t know enough about it,” said Bourdon. “We don’t encourage its use because we don’t really know the long-term effects it will have on the body. Honestly, I would rather chow down on a 16 ounce steak than on a scoop of creatine, and you get the same effect.”
According to Bourdon, when creatine enters the body in the form of a supplement, it triggers a stoppage in the natural production of the enzyme within the body. The debate starts when the supplemental addition of creatine to the body stops, and the question becomes whether or not the body will again begin producing the substance.
“Creatine doesn’t immediately help you to build muscle anyway,” said Bourdon. “In the long term, yes, it might. It may increase your ability to perform reps, which would in turn cause muscle building. We just don’t want to risk anything, because so little is known about the stuff.”
The players also agreed with their coach and with Bourdon. Most of them hadn’t even seen the report yet, and when told about it, most of them were surprised by the numbers.
“I’m not sure what people take at all,” said defenseman Brandon Roach. “I guess there might be some people that take protein to prevent muscle cramps, but you don’t see anything like ephedrine or anything like that.”
Roach went on to say that he’s seen an increased amount of legal substances used in and around playoff time, especially by players on the top two lines that will get double shifted.
“When you have to play every other shift, it gets hard sometimes,” said Roach. “That’s when you see it the most, but even then, it’s not that bad.”
“You can’t follow people around all of the time,” added Bourdon. “But I know my players well. You can’t regulate what anyone does on their own time, but I’m around them enough to know. Honestly, I don’t see any of the effects they listed in the article, nor do I see any of the normal effects of creatine like cramps and odd muscle pulls, in any of our own players. That’s just stuff we’re not seeing.
“When the players ask questions, we answer them honestly and we make sure they are educated, but we will never give them anything like that. Really, the problem existed more so ten years ago than it does now, with all of the publicity and education available on the subject now.”
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