The biggest obstacle of being a professional athlete at 37 years old is your body doesn't recover as quickly from the wear and tear. The wear and tear really adds up. In Lemieux's case, he barely had any. He quit for 3 full seasons from 32-34, then played a half and quarter season. So whereas many other players were beat down from playing in roughly 400 hockey games in the 5 years leading up to age 37, Lemieux played in 85. It's a huge advantage.
Hockey fans routinely discount what a grind and a marathon a hockey season actually is. You think you're being charitable to guys who got injured, but you're also screwing over the guys who showed up to play.
Lollllllll.
A guy with barely any wear tear doesn't miss many games, if any, due to injury or illness.
Look at the amount of games played from the start of his career to the "Three full years of rest" as you put it:
73, 79, 63, 77, 76, 59, 26, 64, 60, 22 (48 game season), 70, 76, three full years of rest.
The man has never played a full season in his life. He has multiple prime seasons with under 70 games played. That, my friend, is due to wear and tear. Oh and going through 22 radiation treatments while battling cancer, that is major wear and tear.
At 37, you're slower, naturally weaker, you lose your explosivess, your testosterone levels are much lower than they were 10 years prior. When Lemieux came back from the rest, he was a shell.
Look at Ovi, he still manages to score goals but he's a shell of the guy who used to beat 3 to 5 guys about 5 times a night in order to take a shot.
