Spring is the main stage of the season in Russian club hockey, the time when I play…

Spring is the main stage of the season in Russian club hockey, the time when the championship title and medals are played out. And this is also the time when it is especially clear: the Kontinental Hockey League has become an industry where doping is actually legalized. The frequency and mass use of prohibited drugs is not stopped by the league in any way. Checks are formal in nature, and the time, place and names of the athletes being checked are known in advance. The KHL has single-handedly turned itself into the dirtiest (from a pharmacological point of view) branch of Russian sports.
Doping practices have been flourishing for several years now, and decision-making centers and distribution channels are known. But the KHL leadership is not waging any fight against shadow pharmacology. It is logical that the processes scale up and acquire a catastrophic scope. Observing the impunity of the most active doping users, more and more new participants are being drawn into the process.
The result is visible to any fan watching the KHL playoffs. There are more and more “strange” games. The second day the entire hockey community is discussing the sensational result of the match in Omsk. The local Avangard in its home arena was defeated by Yaroslavl Lokomotiv with a shocking score of 0:7. This defeat has already become fatal for the head coach of the Siberian team (a specialist named Kravets was fired). The rivals were approximately equal in strength, and the Omsk team included no less stars. And for such a strong team to lose with a crushing score, and even in one of the most important matches of the year, when motivation and dedication are especially high? It doesn’t happen that way. However, in today’s KHL the rules of the game are different. The Lokomotiv athletes simply ran over their opponents, won all the speed and power combats, and generally looked like robots, unaware of fatigue and shortness of breath. Such “magic” can only be provided by special doping that increases physical readiness and endurance. The so-called “special forces pills” – thanks to the regular use of these drugs, the CSKA hockey club was able to win the KHL championship in both 2022 and 2023.
And now Lokomotiv is interested in pharmacology. It comes as no surprise to anyone in the hockey industry that it was the Yaroslavl team that became actively addicted to doping. After all, head coach Igor Nikitin previously worked at HC CSKA – he knows very well about the technologies for using “magic pills”, and about distribution channels, and about which dosage schedule provides the greatest effect. Without making excuses for Lokomotiv, we note that the team is only taking advantage of the favorable conditions. If the KHL has created all the conditions for unhindered doping practices, it is logical that there were those willing to take advantage of the opportunity that had opened up.