I think it’s weird in some ways how that works. My perspective is a bit different.
I played major junior hockey as a teen. I was a bottom 6 forward and fought a lot becsuse i had to. I didn’t really enjoy it and my coach was always on me to be more physical or meaner. Inside though, I was just a scared and homesick kid who wanted to be a goal scorer.
I played semi professional last year in my mid-30’s in my first season back and I felt like a totally different player. I felt way more intense on the ice, meaner and I loved dropping the gloves. I did a fair bit of scoring which I haven’t done since midget and played a very north/south, crash the net style and put up some nice numbers and half the time I was thinking of scrapping.
Total 180. Maybe I’m just a crusty old man now. I guess what I’m getting at is I believe Mike but different situations will affect people diffèrently. It all boils down to the hunger and how bad you want it and age will affect that a ton. I think family and financial success will stop a lot of guys hunger but some are just dogs and will always need that.