Mike Richards VII Why can't we be Friends(Mod note and update Post #1)

[Herby]

I think the biggest error in speculating what will or won't happen to Richards is this is a one time incident. For 2 years there was an unexplained drop in play, the unwillingness to keep in top shape, the loss of hand eye coordination when the puck was on his stick, the inability to keep track of his defensive assignment, the skating stride falling to a beer leaguer level, all of this went unexplained. How did a guy so good fall so far so fast without a major injury (he was cleared by Kings doctors for the concussion issue). Now there is a reason why his mental skills have slowed, the lack of desire to train hard, the unexplained lapse in time from being sent to Manchester and reporting to Manchester, the unexplained "conditioning test" upon his return from a successful stint in Manchester. I refuse to beleive Lombardi, a lawyer and a stickler for details, is going to try to change legal precedent with a single pills in a bottle border incident.

Well if he did have a known drug problem then the Kings violated the CBA in the way they handled it, so very unlikely the Kings would have risked that being leaked.

Also it wasn't much of a secret around the league that Richards had a problem in Philly. Burrows may be a ***** but come on the gesture in Game 1 of the 2012 playoffs clearly had some truth to it. Players talk and obviously it was pretty well known that MR did well, what Burrows suggested. But to be honest, recreational drug use, especially of that drug is rumored to be pretty common around the league and I'm sure most teams just turn a blind eye to it. But when you start to get into Oxy then it's a lot more serious.

But again, if the Kings try and argue any previous drug issues they are opening themselves up to much bigger issues, and DL is to smart to let that happen.

And don't think that NHL GM's aren't above Hail Mary attempts. Rick Dudley tried to draft Alexander Ovechkin in 2003 (he missed the draft by two days), his argument was if you took out leap years Ovechkin was eligible for the draft that year.

 

[kingsholygrail]

King Richads the VIIIth?

 

[Ron*]

Well if he did have a known drug problem then the Kings violated the CBA in the way they handled it, so very unlikely the Kings would have risked that being leaked.

Also it wasn't much of a secret around the league that Richards had a problem in Philly. Burrows may be a ***** but come on the gesture in Game 1 of the 2012 playoffs clearly had some truth to it. Players talk and obviously it was pretty well known that MR did well, what Burrows suggested. But to be honest, recreational drug use, especially of that drug is rumored to be pretty common around the league and I'm sure most teams just turn a blind eye to it. But when you start to get into Oxy then it's a lot more serious.

But again, if the Kings try and argue any previous drug issues they are opening themselves up to much bigger issues, and DL is to smart to let that happen.

And don't think that NHL GM's aren't above Hail Mary attempts. Rick Dudley tried to draft Alexander Ovechkin in 2003 (he missed the draft by two days), his argument was if you took out leap years Ovechkin was eligible for the draft that year.

The NHL approved of the termination. You think that the NHL is not above "Hail Mary" attempts as well?

 

[Fishhead]

I would guess that most, if not all GM's are pulling for the Kings. To a man you can bet they would love to have precedence to fire a player who doesn't live up to their end of the bargain. It's one thing to have a natural drop off in play, that's out of a players control and no GM is going to fault a player for that. It's expected. It's when they refuse to address things that are in their control, like putting in the time and effort to stay in top shape or taking proper care of themselves that has to tick off GM's.

Not that they would always use that option, but it would be there for extreme cases. Like what if someone like Giordano or even Anze signs a fat deal then starts eating like a street cop and passes out after 5 minutes on the bike? Of course NHL'ers usually have great habits and pride themselves on their conditioning and ability, but there's always the odd duck.

 

[johnjm22]

I think the biggest error in speculating what will or won't happen to Richards is this is a one time incident. For 2 years there was an unexplained drop in play, the unwillingness to keep in top shape, the loss of hand eye coordination when the puck was on his stick, the inability to keep track of his defensive assignment, the skating stride falling to a beer leaguer level, all of this went unexplained. How did a guy so good fall so far so fast without a major injury (he was cleared by Kings doctors for the concussion issue). Now there is a reason why his mental skills have slowed, the lack of desire to train hard, the unexplained lapse in time from being sent to Manchester and reporting to Manchester, the unexplained "conditioning test" upon his return from a successful stint in Manchester. I refuse to beleive Lombardi, a lawyer and a stickler for details, is going to try to change legal precedent with a single pills in a bottle border incident.

Richards was already in decline when he got here, and there was signs in his first season here that he wasn't the player he was advertised to be.

I would also think there's more to the situation than we know if Lombardi is willing to go the route he did, but Lombardi has also shown that he can be risk taker.

 

[SettlementRichie10]

Richards was already in decline when he got here, and there was signs in his first season here that he wasn't the player he was advertised to be.

I would also think there's more to the situation than we know if Lombardi is willing to go the route he did, but Lombardi has also shown that he can be risk taker.

Richards had 20 points in 25 games in 2012 pre-Bergenheim hit. He was also fantastic that year in the playoffs. Very much the player advertised, in my opinion. He also had a good year in 2013, with another strong playoff run (he was outplaying Kopitar during that playoff run).

No one ever believed he was a PPG Selke center. That was a career year and everyone knew it. He was advertised as a 40-60 point second line center coming to LA, good on the PK, and good in clutch games, and that's what we got during his first two years in LA, IMO. There's too much revisionist history painting MR as god awful during his entire stint here, and that's just not true.

Whatever happened 2014 and onward, who knows. Maybe he relapsed for all we know. I work in addictions treatment and it's not uncommon for a major injury (like a concussion) to get an addict back on prescription opioids, most of them stronger than street heroin. Prescription opioid abuse is the number one drug of abuse I see in my line of work, and I know people who had 20+ years clean relapse after something as simple as a wisdom tooth removal.

 

[gnarls barkley]

Richards had 20 points in 25 games in 2012 pre-Bergenheim hit. He was also fantastic that year in the playoffs. Very much the player advertised, in my opinion. He also had a good year in 2013, with another strong playoff run (he was outplaying Kopitar during that playoff run).

No one ever believed he was a PPG Selke center. That was a career year and everyone knew it. He was advertised as a 40-60 point second line center coming to LA, good on the PK, and good in clutch games, and that's what we got during his first two years in LA, IMO. There's too much revisionist history painting MR as god awful during his entire stint here, and that's just not true.

Whatever happened 2014 and onward, who knows. Maybe he relapsed for all we know. I work in addictions treatment and it's not uncommon for a major injury (like a concussion) to get an addict back on prescription opioids, most of them stronger than street heroin. Prescription opioid abuse is the number one drug of abuse I see in my line of work, and I know people who had 20+ years clean relapse after something as simple as a wisdom tooth removal.

he was a lot better (along with Brown) than people are remembering in the '14 cup run as well. Yeah, regular season Richards was on the decline for awhile, but he was always a real goddamn warrior in the playoffs, down to the last hurrah.

 

[The Tikkanen]

In honor of the Oxy Clean infomercials-Mike Richards:But wait, there's more!

 

[jfont]

Was watching the 2012 playoffs on my dvr these last week. Mike Richards is a monster. I am really saddened as to what happened since then on the ice. But the most important thing is I hope he gets his life together off the ice.

 

[kingsholygrail]

Was watching the 2012 playoffs on my dvr these last week. Mike Richards is a monster. I am really saddened as to what happened since then on the ice. But the most important thing is I hope he gets his life together off the ice.

I'm still a subscriber to the theory that the several concussions he suffered after 2012 did him in.

 

[YP44]

I'm still a subscriber to the theory that the several concussions he suffered after 2012 did him in.

they definitely didn't help

 

[Bondoao1]

Richards had 20 points in 25 games in 2012 pre-Bergenheim hit. He was also fantastic that year in the playoffs. Very much the player advertised, in my opinion. He also had a good year in 2013, with another strong playoff run (he was outplaying Kopitar during that playoff run).

No one ever believed he was a PPG Selke center. That was a career year and everyone knew it. He was advertised as a 40-60 point second line center coming to LA, good on the PK, and good in clutch games, and that's what we got during his first two years in LA, IMO. There's too much revisionist history painting MR as god awful during his entire stint here, and that's just not true.

Whatever happened 2014 and onward, who knows. Maybe he relapsed for all we know. I work in addictions treatment and it's not uncommon for a major injury (like a concussion) to get an addict back on prescription opioids, most of them stronger than street heroin. Prescription opioid abuse is the number one drug of abuse I see in my line of work, and I know people who had 20+ years clean relapse after something as simple as a wisdom tooth removal.

I don't usually get into these debates because I never have all the info or am as knowledgeable as some people on here...

BUT, This post is one of the best I have seen on this subject.

I have first hand experience with hockey injury turning into opioid abuse, from Vicodin 500's (2500mg of opioid), to oxys.
I'll spare a long story, but I will say it took my ability to play and flushed it down the toilet. I was never close to NHL caliber so I could only imagine the affect it has on someone of MR's caliber.
Fortunately for me, I was able to get off of opioids after a year and never went back and its been over 10 years.

 

[Ron*]

Richards had 20 points in 25 games in 2012 pre-Bergenheim hit. He was also fantastic that year in the playoffs. Very much the player advertised, in my opinion. He also had a good year in 2013, with another strong playoff run (he was outplaying Kopitar during that playoff run).

No one ever believed he was a PPG Selke center. That was a career year and everyone knew it. He was advertised as a 40-60 point second line center coming to LA, good on the PK, and good in clutch games, and that's what we got during his first two years in LA, IMO. There's too much revisionist history painting MR as god awful during his entire stint here, and that's just not true.

Whatever happened 2014 and onward, who knows. Maybe he relapsed for all we know. I work in addictions treatment and it's not uncommon for a major injury (like a concussion) to get an addict back on prescription opioids, most of them stronger than street heroin. Prescription opioid abuse is the number one drug of abuse I see in my line of work, and I know people who had 20+ years clean relapse after something as simple as a wisdom tooth removal.

I don't usually get into these debates because I never have all the info or am as knowledgeable as some people on here...

BUT, This post is one of the best I have seen on this subject.

I have first hand experience with hockey injury turning into opioid abuse, from Vicodin 500's (2500mg of opioid), to oxys.
I'll spare a long story, but I will say it took my ability to play and flushed it down the toilet. I was never close to NHL caliber so I could only imagine the affect it has on someone of MR's caliber.
Fortunately for me, I was able to get off of opioids after a year and never went back and its been over 10 years.

Scary stuff.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Peter James Bond II]

I cannot read through 100 new posts...biz owner that lost my 2 employees and wear all 13 hats now...(so no longer have personal time and my life does not have anything to do with me anymore) so what is the 'icky part' that was stated the day of the leak...is that
covered up? It has to be more than some oxycontin pills for personal use.

 

[Captain Mittens*]

I cannot read through 100 new posts...biz owner that lost my 2 employees and wear all 13 hats now...(so no longer have personal time and my life does not have anything to do with me anymore) so what is the 'icky part' that was stated the day of the leak...is that
covered up? It has to be more than some oxycontin pills for personal use.

No details on anything other than the RCMP charge

 

[tsanuri]

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