[Drury18]

There's two things that stand out in that statement that make me think this is bogus:

The lawsuit notes that Boogaard played in 277 N.H.L. games over six seasons and scored three goals. He fought at least 66 times on the ice and, according to the suit, “was provided copious amounts of prescription pain medications, sleeping pills, and painkiller injections by N.H.L. teams’ physicians, dentists, trainers and staff” to combat the injuries and pain he endured.

Trainers/Athletic Therapists have no medical authority to prescribe or administer drugs and most that I know in the NHL will not give them anything more then Tylenol or Advil. NATA and CATA have no tolerance for
Athletic Trainers playing pharmacist. And "staff" like coaches, equipment managers or GM's. It seems highly unlikely as he was not an elite player that trainers or staff would be giving him anything under the table. He would have been sent to the Team Physician if he was wanting any sort of drugs.

The suit also says that Boogaard was prescribed 1,021 pills from about a dozen doctors during the 2008-9 season with the Wild. At the end of that season, after operations on his nose and his shoulder, doctors prescribed Boogaard 150 pills of oxycodone over 16 days, the suit alleges.

The Minnesota Wild currently list 7 people (3 Surgeons, 2 Dentists, 1 Team Physician and a Medical Director) with doctorates and the possible ability to prescribe pills on their roster. Who are the other 5 people he saw that allegedly prescribed him pills? And again, rarely would you be seeing one physician without them knowing what you are currently on. NHL records are meticulous about what the player is taking and who prescribed it. Being he was also in the NHL Drug Program, they would have been watching him even closer. Him going to 12 doctors and getting a stockpile of drugs seems almost impossible. It's not like the normal person hopping from walk in clinic to walk in clinic and getting prescriptions.


Then you have this:

It states that the N.H.L. “breached its duty” to Boogaard by, among other things, failing to monitor his prescriptions or establish proper procedures for administering and tracking them. It alleges that the substance-abuse program knew that Boogaard violated its rules many times — including a series of failed drug tests in his final months and his admission that he sometimes bought painkillers illegally — yet never disciplined or suspended him, as program rules dictate.

This just doesn't add up. When you throw the brother into the mix and the charges and possibly getting rid of the brothers stash, it really seems that most of these pills were obtained outside of what he was getting from the NHL.