Hair growth

José Theodore tested positive for a hair-growth drug which he has used since he was around 21 years old in order to prevent a family condition of hair loss. The drug has been proven to function as a masking agent for a certain type of steroids, but the masking effect of the drug is very weak. As soon as the NHL informed the Canadiens that the drug was a banned substance, Dr. David Mulder, team physician for the Canadiens, informed the league that Theodore was on the medication. Banned substances are allowed to be taken if a doctor states to the NHL that the player is taking the drug for a specific condition - called a therapeutic use exclusion - as was the case with Theodore. Dr. Mulder pointed out that none of this would have become public had the drug testing not been leaked; this wouldn't have been an issue since Theodore was doing nothing outside of the bounds of the procedure for taking medication. The journalists at the press conference were looking for blood and it's completely unfair to Theodore to be hounded as he was by the press for taking a prescribed medication. This is personal information that the public and the press don't need to know.

It's no wonder that unrestricted free agents don't want to come to Montreal. The team's biggest star is chastised at every opportunity and every aspect of his family life is exposed for the province of Quebec to consume. It's a miracle he had been able to play through this before. I'm not giving Theodore excuses for his poor play but it's not exactly like he has a lot of factors in his favour right now. As Dr. Mulder said, none of this would have become public had it not been leaked to the press, and there's no reason to even still be talking about it. Let's just focus on the Canadiens' game and their quest to make the playoffs.