As we are just days away from the beginning of the season, and as I think about the absolute carnage the pandemic has wrought upon my physical and mental health and free time, I find myself wondering: “Which NHL players will be surprisingly unprepared or checked out?”
When the NHL canceled a whole season in 2004-05, a Hall of Famer — never a fitness freak — made it just a handful of games before his own buddy behind the bench essentially told him, “retire, Jet.”
This preseason we already saw Corey Crawford retire after the realization that restarting with the Devils after a career as a Blackhawk looked, well, not such a good idea after all.