If you dropped me on the basketball court of an elementary school playground at recess, I’d be Michael goddamn Jordan. I mean I’m volleyball-spiking weak layups into the parking lot. I’m Dennis Rodman on the glass. My field goal percentage, given the sheer volume of nearly uncontested layups, is astronomically high.



The problem is, throw me on the court against the backups of any Division III college team, and I’d instantly become the elementary school kids.



That’s essentially the extreme version of what NHL players experience along their path to professional hockey. Most NHLers are Wayne Gretzky as kids, become Owen Nolan in junior, then end up as Max Talbot in the NHL. (Or whoever, I’m just grabbing random names here. I should note, “Max Talbot” is not used in a pejorative fashion here in the slightest.)



For most humans in athletics (or any field really), as the level of talent rises around you, you come to...