May, 2011, Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Claude Giroux, Ville Leino and Dan Carcillo take in a Union match at PPL Park. Richards had just had surgery on his wrist.

May, 2011, Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Claude Giroux, Ville Leino and Dan Carcillo (not pictured) take in a Union match at PPL Park. Richards had just underwent surgery on his wrist. He and Carter would never play for the Flyers again. pic via anonymous tipster

Back in 2013, I had former Philly.com gossip columnist Dan Gross, who broke the Dry Island story, on the podcast, and he reprised comments he made on Puck Daddy Radio in 2011 that the real nut of the story involved prescription painkillers. Here’s what Gross told me [audio at 25:30 mark]:

“After [Richards and Carter] both left, we started hearing some things about why they were gone. And whether it had to do with excessive partying. And there was also a question that didn’t make my story, because it wasn’t to the level which we could say it definitively … it’s certainly accurate to say there were teammates of these guys who had believed that they were taking prescription painkillers in addition to drinking and partying. Now, were those painkillers prescribed due to injury? I’m sure they were– Carter had the broken foot and Richards had I’m sure other things going. So, I’m not about to say the guys were abusing drugs or anything like that. But I will say that there’s at least two teammates who were concerned that was the case.”

He also said that the Daily News was uncomfortable printing some of those details because they were unable to verify the claims, even though Gross felt they were at the heart of the Dry Island story:

“It was unfortunate that it didn’t get into the story. I kinda of thought that if you did have that in the story, it just made the whole thing sound a little more legit. Look, I knew it was legit, I knew what I reported was accurate. And there were people who were like ‘oh, we all know these guys drink but they don’t drink any more than this one or that one,’ and all of that seemed true. But what I think what was really instrumental in selling that story so-to-speak to the readers, was the idea of the Dry Island.”

None of this is particularly surprising, but it does demonstrate that these concerns regarding painkillers have swirled around Richards (and others…) for years now. It would make sense if the Kings had this as context for their decision to release Richards for a breach of contract following a border incident involving OxyContin.

Related: Here are more photos from that trip to PPL Park to see Becks, who wasn’t there