As someone who has made his mark on teams that he didn't belong on by being a grinder, a defensive stalwart and a penalty killer...I typically have a much easier time managing a penalty kill shift than I do an ES shift against top competition...and I'm a start-and-stop penalty killer too...but I can kill a full two minute penalty if I had to...I can't play that long against top competition at ES...too much more ice to cover, too much variance to account for, if I'm on the wrong side of things on an ES shift - it's tougher for me to dictate the terms...
At the levels I've coached at, I've found the players most similar to me also experience it that way...
That's not gospel, but when it comes to managing minutes as a coach or managing my shift as a player, I would not agree with the quoted certainly...