- Sep 22, 2011
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I'm not saying he wasn't fit. I'm saying fitness standards of the 70s and 40 years later are different.
Drop a player like Erik Karlsson into the 70s, he'd most likely be far and away the best defenseman. Drop Bobby Orr into the following season without any modern training and he'd be awful.
I'm not saying EK > Orr here, i'm just trying to explain how much I value modern training and fitness.
Drop Karlsson in the 70s, he'd have to endure 2+ minute shifts, and a physicality he has never experienced before, playing on heavy tube skates with no support, with wooden sticks, stiff, full length gloves, and heavy felt padded equipment that soaks up water and sweat as the game goes on, till it feels like lead.
It goes both ways.