Citing common sense on something that is not even done anymore is questionable to say the least. People don't travel on train to do what Gordie Howe did anymore nor most other professions. The idea that he spent additional hours in transit compared to players today is unproven in this conversation from what I've seen and I think it would be very difficult to do so.
That may be true from a West Coast point of view, but on the Atlantic seaboard the matter of train vs plane is a decision that people make every day. Almost nobody chooses the train unless the distance is triflingly small (e.g. Philly to NYC). There
absolutely is a difference between the 8-hour train ride or the 1.5-hour flight from Washington to Boston. Especially if it leaves late at night and you're expecting to work the following day.
As for the against guys whose only focus was on that sport, are you sure about that? Typically, players in those days had off-season jobs across all sports. What Howe did then wasn't out of the norm. I like that you ask the question about how I can say how strenuous it was when you're doing the same thing making it a parallel. Yeah, some players do arrive out of shape but that's not the norm anymore. It often occurred during Howe's time for various reasons like they had other jobs for instance.
I meant that he was playing against baseball prospects whose only focus was on advancing in that sport. To go out there and not only make the team, but also play effectively in that environment, he
had to have been in full blown baseball training. Everyone else on the team certainly would have been.
No need to go down the path of exactly how many NHL'ers actually worked real 9-to-5 jobs in the offseason, and how many actually showed up to camp out of shape, but suffice it to say that this is largely mythology based on a small number of incidents that stick in people's memory.
I think it's taking the easy way out to call it all a wash. The physical and mental punishment that players endure these days are greater. Just because they've gotten advances in equipment and medicine doesn't mean it's caught up enough to make it a wash. Is it a wash that a lot of guys develop mental trauma to the extent of committing suicide seemingly more often than in the past? I don't.
You're right that it's the easy way to call it a wash. We could try and pick apart every detail of the topic for a precise analysis, but IMO that's not needed. We can just as easily, for the sake of internet conversation, look at the broad strokes and see that a lot of this stuff breaks even. A lot of these changes happened
because of efforts to make the game less stressful on the mind and body -- injury prevention and treatment, collectively bargained rights, improvements to off-ice accommodations, schedule decompression, etc. And because of those improvements, they're able to push the envelope a little more, squeeze a little more juice out of the player. It all stays more or less in balance -- looks different, feels about the same.
As far as suicide is concerned, I don't know of any increase in the suicide rate among NHL players as a whole. That spate of suicides happened in the stage-fighter demographic that was a phenomenon of the 90s and 00s -- and yes, I definitely would say that specific breed of player took a level of physiological punishment that was unique in history.
As for the scheduling, a predominant 70 game schedule compared to 82 is merely one thing. The playoffs have extended itself as well. Marleau has played about a half season longer in the playoffs than Howe did. But again, none of this matters and really is only trying to take away from what Marleau is going to do next season. Anyone able to stay at an NHL level for 23 seasons in any era has an impressive career regardless of any other stat.
I was going to mention playoffs, because for some players that would be a legit point, but we're talking about Patrick Marleau.
And no, none of this is meant to take anything away from his career. I just don't see any need to speak inaccurately about other eras in order to boost modern accomplishments. If Marleau's record stands in its own right, then let it do that.