I would call it someone being...
...no expert, just like you.
You’re not an authority on NHL endurance, and your men’s league/lifetime of hockey credentials don’t bring you much closer to being one. Unless one of us on HF Hawks is also currently employed by the Blackhawks strength and conditioning staff, none of us really know what we’re talking about so you waiving around your hockey experience doesn’t do much for anyone.
ANYWAY, back to the actual topic...there’s clearly a direct correlation between increased ice time and fatigue and for you to ask others to “prove it” is ridiculous. It’s just simple chemistry. More minutes=more work=more required energy. Granted, Kane isn’t flying up and down the ice so his high minutes are probably not as intense as others due to his playstyle, but I personally don’t believe for a second that his “extra shift or two” a game doesn’t collectively wear down on a guy a little bit at the very least. It’s only the extent of this wear and tear that’s in question, not if it exists.
Ultimately it’s the Hawks training staff and Colliton who manage this, and not my personal opinion. They seem to think Kane can handle it so that’s good enough for me. I think we can trust them have a professional gauge on the situation and not to run him into the ground.
So I'm continuing this discussion here so as not to further derail the Blackhawks' playoff thread.
What fascinates me is the comment in bold. It amazes me that there are so many people that truly believe this. I mean, the first thing is...there is no such thing as "NHL endurance"...
What is the rationale behind thinking that decades of experience with a sport has no relevance on the discussion, because it was not at the professional level? Do people really think that preparation, training, conditioning, endurance, and the concepts of the sport change that much, just because you're at the professional level?
Do people not realize that pretty much all of youth hockey is modeled after ....what the professionals are doing? That the instruction that USA hockey is giving out....is coming from people in professional hockey? From a lot of people that CURRENTLY PLAY, or CURRENTLY COACH?
Ever watch an NHL, AHL, ECHL, NCAA training camp? Know how many of the drills you will have never seen before? At a high school level.... Or at a Midget Major level? Ever watch the Blackhawks' and their off-ice training sessions? Know how many of those things aren't being utilized throughout hockey, at various different levels? Know how much of their off-ice and on-ice training is new?? Almost none of it. There's some 14 year old kid, somewhere, doing 95% of what they do, right now as we speak...
On-ice, in-game conditioning does not suddenly become an enigma because you're talking about the NHL instead of minor hockey. The physiology of the sport does not change. The components of conditioning and recovery do not suddenly change. What you do to condition yourself, to rest, to recover, to prepare, to fuel yourself...these things do not change.
People also realize that players aren't just born into the NHL? That it requires a lifetime of the training and conditioning that the professional players are doing, just to get to that point? That there are hundreds of thousands of hockey players that have gone through the same on-ice training, and off-ice training as those that made it to professional hockey? You know, the training that actually MADE them NHL players??
They don't take everything you've been doing for the last 15 years of hockey and throw it out the window once you make an NHL roster. They don't change much of anything, actually.
This applies to pretty much any sport. I would never diminish the opinion of someone who has played and coached a sport their entire life because "they didn't play pro". That's just absurd.