Berard on Roids?

[Eazy_b97 1]

I can see your point, but dude, the guy had his eye knocked out!

He probably got depressed, wanted nothing to do with hockey, nonetheless Toronto, and wanted to just get back home.

Then when the eye healed, he figured he'd give it a try. Maybe he didn' want to play in TO because of psychological issues...like scene of the accident issues. I know people that won't use the same roads that they've been in accidents on cuz it brings back scary memories.

Only speculation. But I'll tell ya. The guy's got one eye and he's playing at a decently high level of hockey in hockey's highest level. Tells you something about his skill, that he can hang with the big boys with one eye.

The injury happened in Ottawa and he apperantly did alot of his rehab in Toronto. He said he wanted to be around his home, but has floated to a half dozen NHL cities since then. Toronto came to him, point blank, and asked if he was coming back. He said no, he got the insurance money, and that was the last we saw of him. He was seeing specialists on a regular basis to determine if he could have a comeback or not. It didn't look like it, he took the $, continued to work, then took off.

[Eazy_b97 1]

He did contribute all his money the first year he came back to a charity or something though, which was a nice gesture.

I haven't seen anything that has said that. I know he had to give all of his insurance money back.

[#96 0]

Leafs fans are just looking at ANYTHING to blame as the reason for their non-success for the past..oh, I dunno, 30 years! If it isnt' a player, it's the coach, if it's not the coach, it's the GM. But it's always someone with Leafs fans.

[asdfa 0]

if a team that has very few monetary restrictions fails to win the stanley cup in over 30 years, then there is something wrong. i wouldn't blame berard for it, but it was annoying as a leaf's fan to see potentially one of the top 2 or 3 defenseman walk out on a team and city that supported him as much as possible.

also, i believe he was wearing a visor when he got injured, but the stick came up under it and hit his eye.

also, does he really only have vision in one eye? that would mean he has no peripheral vision on one entire side, meaning that unless his head was swivelling like mad all the time, he'd get continuously smoked from one direction...

[#96 0]

I've read that he has said his vision is severely blurry in the one eye. Kinda like when you first wake up in the morning and have that haze.

[#96 0]

Lemme guess Leafs fans, Berard is somehow responsible for the Leafs losing to Ottawa right now 6-0...

[mack 44]

The team, coach, goalie are all jokes. I pray to Allah they trade Sundin away to a team doing something.

[Eazy_b97 1]

Toronto's a joke with McCabe. They've quit. Now maybe they will rebuild. #96 whats with the bashing? Honestly, just because this guy isn't an angel doesn't mean I am saying it because he left the Leafs. Theo made him out to be some saint. Fact is, he did roids, has a fuzzy past and got in trouble. His eye injury was bad, very bad, but he didn't take roids (that we know of) when he was coming back. I have not blamed him for anything, or bashed the Leafs losing because of his departure.

Have I said one word about Berard effecting the team? I was more upset because of what the city had done to help him out and from a team standpoint. Most people felt he hurt the team because of his high risk play. When he was injured he was rounding into a great D-man, but it took ALOT of work to get him there. The player you see now, is the player he was when he started in Toronto, a hell of a scorer, lost in his own end.

I'm not sure if he lost, or has 60% left of his vision in the one eye, but the 60% number sounds really familiar. He was not wearing a visor at the time of the incident.

[#96 0]

Toronto's a joke with McCabe. They've quit. Now maybe they will rebuild. #96 whats with the bashing? Honestly, just because this guy isn't an angel doesn't mean I am saying it because he left the Leafs. Theo made him out to be some saint. Fact is, he did roids, has a fuzzy past and got in trouble. His eye injury was bad, very bad, but he didn't take roids (that we know of) when he was coming back. I have not blamed him for anything, or bashed the Leafs losing because of his departure.

Have I said one word about Berard effecting the team? I was more upset because of what the city had done to help him out and from a team standpoint. Most people felt he hurt the team because of his high risk play. When he was injured he was rounding into a great D-man, but it took ALOT of work to get him there. The player you see now, is the player he was when he started in Toronto, a hell of a scorer, lost in his own end.

I'm not sure if he lost, or has 60% left of his vision in the one eye, but the 60% number sounds really familiar. He was not wearing a visor at the time of the incident.

It's just that Leafs always seem to have a gripe. But very specific gripes. When they went far back in the 90s, Felix Potvin was a godsend. Then they start to slip, and Felix is a disgrace. Then they get some bad coaches, some bad deals done. Quinn gets hired, Cujo comes to town...seems great in Leafs Nation. Things turn bad, and Cujo is a horrible goalie all of a sudden. Gotta get a better goalie. Fast forward to present. McCabe is the man, leading D in scoring. Amazing. Now he's hurt, Leafs are suffering. During the winning streak a few weeks back, Belfour was recapturing some of his old form! He looks fantastic. Now they're losing again, and the goalie sucks.

Just seems to me that Leafs fans like to pick out specific instances rather than looking at the bigger picture. They want to complain, bitch, and moan about which guys aren't doing their job, rather than looking at ALL the guys not doing their job. When a goal gets scored, it's Belfour's fault, he sucks. Not that Sundin lost the faceoff, Steen got beat to the loose puck, and Kaberle let his man go in the crease.

As a Ranger fan, being through the past 8 years, as rough as it's been, it's been the general consensus that the WHOLE team sucked. The WHOLE organization sucked. Not something, but EVERYTHING had to be changed.

Leafs fans need to look at the bigger picture instead of being pissy individual gripers, and get to the real point...the WHOLE organiztion sucks. Like Mack said, the coach sucks, the GM sucks, the goalie sucks. Everybody, sucks.

[Jason Harris 31]

I didn't realize this until going to Toronto for the first time last year, but Leafs fans and Red Sox fans are the same creatures. And the Leafs media and Red Sox media are the same.

Luckily for us, we broke the spell, but we're already back to bitching about the team's moves. :lol:

[Jason Harris 31]

He gets a pass for this steriod stuff from me....I mean, if anyone in the NHL needs some kind of advantage, he does.

Theo, you can't give out passes, because too many will then convince themselves they deserve this pass and try to get away with it.

And many of those convincing themselves won't be trying to come back from eye surgery, or splinal injury or turn ACL/MCL. They'll be telling themselves that they could make the NHL "if only I wasn't only 6'2" and 218 lbs." The sad fact of life is people cheat, particularly when gold is involved. The ones that really deserve the pass in those instances would then be the ones that don't cheat -- quite the conundrum, eh?

[mack 44]

I'm just going to keep hoping I hear Sundin dealt, like maybe back to the Nordalanche. I mean McLean can't keep this scoring pace up. Or maybe the Devils, then it'd have a Godfather-esque feel if they'd met in the playoffs.

[Eazy_b97 1]

It's just that Leafs always seem to have a gripe. But very specific gripes. When they went far back in the 90s, Felix Potvin was a godsend. Then they start to slip, and Felix is a disgrace. Then they get some bad coaches, some bad deals done. Quinn gets hired, Cujo comes to town...seems great in Leafs Nation. Things turn bad, and Cujo is a horrible goalie all of a sudden. Gotta get a better goalie. Fast forward to present. McCabe is the man, leading D in scoring. Amazing. Now he's hurt, Leafs are suffering. During the winning streak a few weeks back, Belfour was recapturing some of his old form! He looks fantastic. Now they're losing again, and the goalie sucks.

Just seems to me that Leafs fans like to pick out specific instances rather than looking at the bigger picture. They want to complain, bitch, and moan about which guys aren't doing their job, rather than looking at ALL the guys not doing their job. When a goal gets scored, it's Belfour's fault, he sucks. Not that Sundin lost the faceoff, Steen got beat to the loose puck, and Kaberle let his man go in the crease.

As a Ranger fan, being through the past 8 years, as rough as it's been, it's been the general consensus that the WHOLE team sucked. The WHOLE organization sucked. Not something, but EVERYTHING had to be changed.

Leafs fans need to look at the bigger picture instead of being pissy individual gripers, and get to the real point...the WHOLE organiztion sucks. Like Mack said, the coach sucks, the GM sucks, the goalie sucks. Everybody, sucks.

That's fine and I don't disagree, but don't stereotype like that and assume thats how I think.

[chippa13 1844]

Good....

The guy only has one eye and needs all the help he can get.  Its not like we are talking about a dirtbag here like Tucker or Avery or Peca who will use any extra gains to cheapshot guys or crush them through the boards.  Berard doesn't really play like that.

Plus he was not on them during the NHL season anyways.

I lost alot of respect after he bolted from Toronto. He had a ton of support during his eye injury, told the team he wasn't going to play, took the insurance money, then decided to go back to the states after he was helped out so much by the city of Toronto and the team. Not exactly first class in my opinion.

When Berard decided to attempt his comeback, the Leafs said "thanks, but no thanks."

[Eazy_b97 1]

He told them he wanted to go to the States for his comeback. The Leafs said "no" when his contract was up for renewal and he was getting paid by the insurance company.

[chippa13 1844]

He did contribute all his money the first year he came back to a charity or something though, which was a nice gesture.

Wrong, the money that Berard makes goes toward paying back the insurance company since he was paid out based on the assumption that his career was over.

[chippa13 1844]

if a team that has very few monetary restrictions fails to win the stanley cup in over 30 years, then there is something wrong. i wouldn't blame berard for it, but it was annoying as a leaf's fan to see potentially one of the top 2 or 3 defenseman walk out on a team and city that supported him as much as possible.

also, i believe he was wearing a visor when he got injured, but the stick came up under it and hit his eye.

also, does he really only have vision in one eye? that would mean he has no peripheral vision on one entire side, meaning that unless his head was swivelling like mad all the time, he'd get continuously smoked from one direction...

Berard is almost completely blind in his injured eye and has barely the amount of vision in that eye required to be allowed to play in the NHL. It is more just shadows that he can see with that eye. Also, he was not wearing a visor at the time of the injury.

[Chadd 916]

if a team that has very few monetary restrictions fails to win the stanley cup in over 30 years, then there is something wrong.  i wouldn't blame berard for it, but it was annoying as a leaf's fan to see potentially one of the top 2 or 3 defenseman walk out on a team and city that supported him as much as possible.

also, i believe he was wearing a visor when he got injured, but the stick came up under it and hit his eye.

also, does he really only have vision in one eye?  that would mean he has no peripheral vision on one entire side, meaning that unless his head was swivelling like mad all the time, he'd get continuously smoked from one direction...

Berard is almost completely blind in his injured eye and has barely the amount of vision in that eye required to be allowed to play in the NHL. It is more just shadows that he can see with that eye. Also, he was not wearing a visor at the time of the injury.

From what I understand his vision really isn't good enough to meet the NHL minimum but the NHL didn't want to face a lawsuit under the Americans with Disabilitites Act.

[foppa21 0]

The thing I've always been amazed about with Berard is the depth perception issue. I've gone through an eye trauma with close to the same results and let me tell you that the recovery process is pure hell. It takes supreme effort in the beginning just to not walk straight into things around the house or on the street, much less skate. I had to give up playing because I just couldn't deal with the lack of depth perception. For him to be able to overcome that and still be able to play at the NHL level is nothing short of miraculous.