I just don't see that at all. If I work in Detroit and I have the choice between a plane trip to LA or a train trip to Toronto, knowing that I have to work once I get there, I'm
easily taking the plane trip to LA. It's not even a debate. One of these is obviously going to be a lot more exhausting than the other, because it's going to take much longer and be much harder on my mind and body as a result, not to mention giving me a lot less time to rest and prepare once I arrive. The travel time is what's relevant, not how many miles are passing outside the window.
I mean, you have to assume that playing semi-pro ball means you're playing ~5 games a week and practicing 1-2 times a week, plus doing daily BP and fielding drills. So you're getting daily light workouts, which isn't significantly different than an NHL offseason regimen in terms of body impacts. It's not like modern NHL'ers grind themselves to a pulp during the summer...
even the "crazy" ones are low-impact and focused mainly on flexibility and cardio. If these guys were playing pro baseball they'd be getting roughly the same work on roughly the same muscle groups.
I'm not embellishing anything. Every injury and travel schedule I listed is a matter of documented fact. I'm not sure why there would be an assumption that being a full-time professional hockey player is getting more physically demanding all the time. If anything, the entire point of advances in technology and medicine is to make it
less demanding. The physical performance we see in 2020 is the result of taking emphasis
off of unnecessary physical demands (e.g. facial injuries, blown ligaments) and shifting emphasis to technical precision which results in long-term wear injuries (e.g. worn-out labrums, back problems).