When the average age of your team is 35, someone is always hurting.
Hell, I bent down once and threw out my back at 30 and have never recovered. To be 20 again…
some truth in that, granted pro athletes tend to be a bit more physically capable.
either way though, that's sort of embedded in my point...they have a lot of dead weight on their roster. the why's of whether it's age, talent, roster fit, skating etc is a different conversation, and probably a lot more complicated/one i don't know enough about the nuances.