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McVie is in terrific shape for an octogenarian. There’s not a hotel gym he hasn’t spent time in, and looks like he could bench-press Connor McDavid.

He loves hockey rinks even more than gyms.

“He’s a lifer,” said Detroit’s Western pro scout Bruce Haralson. “All of his friends are in this business. We’re like a family, even though we work for different teams.”

He’s not tired of grading players who could be his great-grandkids. “I’ve never hung around with old people. I’ve never lived anywhere where old people live. I’m around dressing rooms with kids. I don’t dress like an old man. I’m not all bent over,” he said.

The travel doesn’t bug him, either.

“Are you kidding? Gets me out of the house. I can’t stay home. My late wife used to say, ‘You love hockey more than you love me.’ I said, ‘Yeah, but I love you more than I love baseball.’ ’’

“Believe it or not, I lived in the Holiday Inn, Room 424 in Portland, Maine, for five years when I was coaching there (New Jersey’s AHL farm team). When I coached the Jets in Winnipeg, I lived at the Viscount Gort for two years. Room 200. That’s seven years I spent in a hotel room,” he said.

Why didn’t get he get an apartment?

“Why bother. I used to say, ‘If you fire me, I can have my stuff from my hotel room and be out of town in 30 minutes, unless I have stuff at the cleaners. Then maybe it’s an hour, and I’m gone,’ ” said McVie.

McVie has a funny story for every night of the week, like the one from training camp when he coached the Devils a few decades ago. “One day Bob Butera, president of the team, comes into the dressing room and asks who this guy helping out (trainer) Keith Parker is. Parker says, ‘his name’s Norman Bates … says he’s just working training camp. Says he doesn’t really need the job. Says he owns a motel with his mother outside of town,” guffawed McVie.