Saltie: Despite the War many others things  have changed as well.Today the talent concentration, the shift in game conditioning, equipment evolution, travel,  better coaching and management systems  can be argued make today's game easier for the players to transition in and  achieve higher levels of performance.  Players back then had to battle more regularly and under greater obstacles simply to keep their jobs each year and produce results.  For example, if you had a 20 goal season your were considered a Star in the league, they also only had a 50 game schedule and shorter playoffs.