from Amy Moritz of the Buffalo News,
An 82-game schedule in the National Hockey League can wreck havoc on your body. Even the lucky ones who don't miss time with an injury are battling some physical ailments -- bumps, bruises, exhausted muscles that need time to recover.
But the season also takes a toll mentally. It's a grind, even if you're on a winning team. And just like learning how to take care of themselves physically to recover from games and practices, players have to learn their own best practices to take care of themselves mentally.
"Some years are more trying than others and trying in a different sense, too," said Sabres forward Kyle Okposo. "It's different when you're winning. When you're winning a lot you have to stay sharp all the time and that's a different kind of grind. When things aren't going well, you're trying to get sharp. You're trying to find a different type of motivation every game and that's a different kind of grind. The long and the short of it is any time you play an 82-game season it's a grind mentally. We have to find a way to try and be at our best every night."
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