Ryan Suter easily led the NHL in average time on ice this season, at 29:04 per game. Devan Dubnyk played in 39 straight pressurized games down the stretch this season, the longest streak by a goalie since 2008.
Tonight, as the Wild begins a second-round playoff series in Chicago, the team will count on Suter and Dubnyk to continue as marathon men, even though neither seems to have any interest in training like a marathoner.
Athletes have never been so well-trained or nutritionally fortified, yet athletes have never before proved so brittle.
Toward the end of his career, Vikings Hall of Fame receiver Cris Carter employed a baker’s dozen of personal employees to squeeze every ounce of sweat out of his body and career.