At 43, Teemu Selänne is currently the oldest active player in the NHL since June 2012.

Most of the players work hard in the summer. Long gone are the days when a professional hockey player could just take the summer off. Weights, bicycles, running, inline skating --players do whatever it takes in the off-season to stay fit. Sharks Defenseman Doug Bodger told us that while they work hard all summer, the demands of the game itself are more intense and it takes a while for everyone to get to point to where they feel comfortable physically.

Gordie Howe is the only player to have competed in the NHL in five different decades (1940s through 1980s).

He outlasted the Energizer bunny, playing for a remarkable 32 years. At the age of 51, when he should have been sipping beer on his front porch, he was still skating a regular shift in the NHL.

Not even more than 300 stitches, damaged knee cartilage, broken ribs, a broken wrist, several broken toes, a dislocated shoulder, an assortment of scalp wounds, a painful ankle injury and a near-brush with death could derail his date with destiny. And to think, growing up he thought he "would have been happy to play just one season."

The 2014 Sochi Olympics consisted of a never before 12-team competition featuring five players in their 40's.

So much for getting more mileage out of one’s athletic career through clean fuels. But then, the presence at these Olympics of Ozolinsh, 41; Nedved, 42; his teammate Jaromir Jagr, 41; the Swede Daniel Alfredsson, 41; and the Finn Teemu Selanne, 43, owes little to virtuous planning.

Hockey equipment and rules have drastically changed for the better in recent years.

Helmets became mandatory in the League for any player signing his first contract after June 1, 1979. Craig MacTavish was the last NHLer to play without a helmet, retiring in 1996-97.

The NHL and Reebok unveil a new uniform system in 2007 at the 55th NHL All-Star Game in Dallas, designed to enhance player performance and increase protection and safety.

There have also been improvements in health screenings, unlike before in the league.

After the sudden, on-ice death of Quebec Major Junior Hockey League prospect Jordan Boyd, teams are looking for ways to improve an already stringent health screening process.

With players now pushing themselves to the limit in tryouts for coveted positions on top teams across the country, the organizations they hope to play for are concerned what happened to Boyd, 16, when he collapsed on the ice at an Acadie-Bathurst Titan training camp in New Brunswick earlier this month will not happen to any other players.

Veteran player Nedved, 42 does not presume it to be equipment that helped prolong his career.

“Playing on this level after 40, I guess we’re lucky or good, but we’re here,” Nedved said.

As Nedved says about luck in the league, improvements in medical technology may not be the aiding factor in the longevity of hockey players since the mentality in hockey may always remain the same.

"I don't think the spectators, if they've never played hockey themselves, truly understand the mentality of the hockey players, how they disregard pain and their own doctor's orders," said Dr. Antonio Ramos when I met him in his office in the Pilsen neighborhood.

"There was Tony Esposito, the goalie, getting a stick inside his mouth that ripped it up, with incredible trauma, and going back to play," said Ramos.

"And Bobby Hull years ago, in the playoffs with Montreal, struck in the face with a puck, the entire bone structure of the face having disintegrated, and playing," Ramos said. "And of course, there was Keith Magnuson."

Chicago Blackhawk’s Marian Hossa,34 may have a better future already at this age by listening to his team doctor.

“I didn’t know him. But I spent lots of time with him after the surgery, and the shoulder is better than before,” said Hossa.

“I definitely know he’s one of the top surgeons in the business, and my shoulder is great. I’ve got closer with him, and now he’s a good friend of mine. He did an excellent job.”

Rather equipment, luck or both has aided these older players to stay healthy only God may know.

What are known facts, is that there are a number of players of similar age that played in different decades and lasted as long.

There is Chris Chelios(2010), 48, Maurice Roberts (1951), 45, Gordie Howe(1980), 52, Mark Messier(2004), 43, Hughie Lehman (1928), 42 and other players with similar ages for oldest hockey players.