Integrity Of The Game

There was some major news that came out of the NHL today as Vegas Golden Knights defenceman Nate Schmidt was suspended for 20 games for violating the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program. Based on the reaction from Nate Schmidt, I'd say that this finding wasn't expected as he is claiming innocence, and I'm starting to believe his claims that he didn't take any banned substances to his knowledge. That being said, the suspension must be upheld based on the findings for the integrity of the game, and I assume that Schmidt and the Golden Knights, while unhappy with this decision, understand that these values on the amount of any banned substance in the bloodstream aren't just a slippery slope that one can overlook due to "environmental contamination".

I understand and believe that Nate Schmidt was only taking supplements provided by the Vegas Golden Knights this summer. There is absolutely no doubt about this in my mind as Nate Schmidt seems like the kind of guy who wouldn't risk suspension due to his love of the game. This could possibly fall on the shoulders of the Golden Knights who were instructing Schmidt of the supplements he should be taking, but if Schmidt didn't receive his supplements directly from the team, the Golden Knights also come up innocent when it comes to performance-enhancing drugs. If Schmidt was going to a store to acquire his supplements, he has to know that he runs the risk of there being some possible contamination along the lines as drug manufacturers do their best to keep everything in line, but mishaps do occasionally happen.

Here's where I draw the line. I will not label Schmidt a cheater or a drug user or any other name that implies he's using performance-enhancing drugs. What I will say is that Nate Schmidt, like any other athlete, has to know what he's putting into his body at all times, and the fact that he was caught with some contaminant in his supplements is no different than when Nicklas Backstrom tested positive for pseudoephedrine at the 2014 Sochi Olympics despite his using Zyrtec-D for several years for his allergies. There's a limit to the amount of certain drugs one can ingest, and Schmidt unknowingly had ingested one of the banned substances beyond a level deemed acceptable by the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program.

Case closed. No exceptions.

This isn't some arbitrary scale the moves based on the amounts found in one's system. It's a cut-and-dry system to prevent players who want to use performance-enhancing drugs to gain an edge from having an unfair advantage compared to the rest of the field. And while Schmidt's tested amount was equivalent to "a pinch of salt in an Olympic-sized swimming pool" over the limit, it's still over the limit set out in the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program.

If a driver blows 0.081% on a breath analysis test, that driver is still charged with impaired driving despite him or her legally being just 1/1000th of a percentage point over the limit or, measured more easily, 1 milligram of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood as per the Canadian Criminal Code. It doesn't matter if one blows 0.081% or 0.100% or more, the result is the same charges are levied against the driver despite there being significant changes to the driver's behaviour and judgement as the number increases. It's a penalty no matter what amount over the driver is, though, and the NHL/NHLPA Performance Enhancing Substances Program views infractions over its limits the same way. And yes, I'm aware that drivers with anything above 0.000% can still be charged with a crime, but drivers at lower BACs are dealt with under provincial and territorial traffic acts. For the purpose of the illustration above in the paragraph, I simply needed the 0.080% limit.

Back on topic, if I'm Nate Schmidt and I had purchased these supplements on my own, I'd immediately be looking for a different brand who sells this specific supplement. Clearly, the cross-contamination with another supplement or drug has cost Schmidt 20 games this season and pile of money, and I'm pretty sure he's not looking to be victimized twice by the same mistake. If the supplements came from the Golden Knights, the team should be investigating its supply chain and figuring out how to proceed in the future so it's not keeping one of their best players off the ice for a quarter of the season.

In the end, Nate Schmidt was unlucky. He rolled the dice in taking supplements prescribed for him by the Golden Knights, and he got burned when the supplements came back dirty. That's the risk that one takes when looking for supplements, and the sheer number of supplement recalls in the United States alone should put supplement users on high alert for possible contamination. I suspect that Schmidt will be far more wary in the future when it comes to his supplements, but this is one of those "lesson learned" moments when it comes to being an elite athlete.

The integrity of the game is the most important part of this lesson. If the NHL let Nate Schmidt's findings slide due to the minute amount over the limit that he was, at what point is there a cutoff for an amount over the limit? The answer is emphatically zero amount over the limit, and that's what Nate Schmidt will sit for twenty games to start the season.

Lesson learned.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!