CHICAGO — Louis Crevier is 6 feet 8 and a rock-solid 228 pounds, nary an ounce of fat on him. The dude’s ripped. He’s also 24 years old, in his physical prime and living his dream of being an everyday player in the NHL.

But skating is an unnatural motion and sometimes even Crevier’s hips hurt. Maybe he caught a puck in a bad spot a night earlier and he’s achy. Sometimes his legs just aren’t there. Like the rest of us, there are days when he just wants to crawl back into bed in the middle of the afternoon.

You’ll never hear him complain, though.

“I love it,” the Blackhawks defenseman said. “I’d rather be tired from playing than wondering if I’m going to play, or doing some scratch skates. It’s a hundred thousand percent better to be tired or sore or whatever it is. It’s a privilege to be sore. It means you’re playing.”

Every Blackhawks player will tell you the same, particularly the younger guys. Ryan Greene and Artyom Levshunov aren’t about to turn down 20 minutes of ice time a night, nor was Frank Nazar before he got hurt. Oliver Moore and Wyatt Kaiser aren’t asking for a reprieve in Rockford anytime soon. Crevier and Colton Dach aren’t looking to avoid contact on the ice because of an ouchie or two. Spencer Knight doesn’t want to go back to a true timeshare in net.

But while the most obvious cause of the Blackhawks’ tailspin over the past month or so has been Connor Bedard’s shoulder injury — the star center returned to the ice before Monday’s practice but didn’t take any shots, and is still likely at least a couple weeks away — it’s also fair to wonder if the Blackhawks’ bevy of wide-eyed youngsters is collectively hitting the wall. Chicago is one of the youngest teams in the league, with 10 regulars aged 24 or younger (12, counting Bedard and Nazar).

And while they might protest, the rookie wall is a real thing. Only Bedard and Alex Vlasic have actually ground out a full NHL season. Even Nazar, signed long-term, has played just 89 career games over two seasons. The Blackhawks’ woeful performance in the second night of back-to-backs this season — a 9-3 loss in Buffalo, a 4-0 loss to Detroit and a 7-3 loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday night — seems to underscore that idea (though coach Jeff Blashill actually quite liked his team’s effort against the Penguins).

Levshunov is playing more minutes than ever since Sam Rinzel’s demotion to Rockford, but his game has been up and down after a dynamite November. Moore has just two assists in his last 12 games. Greene is experiencing the highs and lows of being a de facto No. 1 center on a team missing its top two pivots. Nick Lardis is getting his first taste of the NHL, and it’s been a mixed bag so far.

“I don’t think that should be an excuse,” Dach said. “That’s not a problem at all. Growing up, I played junior hockey, where there’s a lot of three-in-threes, four-in-fives. A lot of the young guys did as well. You play that in the AHL, as well. You’re accustomed to that. So back-to-backs shouldn’t be a problem for young guys. We should actually be the ones leading the charge and helping everyone else get energy. We should be the guys putting our best foot forward.”