Perhaps they have a mean streak.

More than likely, the answer lies in between.

Approximately 25 players took the ice at MGH Ice Centre on Monday under the watchful eye of Pirates’ head coach Ray Edwards and his staff, as well as scouts and staff from the Coyotes as Portland opened training camp for its 21st season.

And at the end of the two-hour session, they skated in waves up and down the ice.

Hard.

After a second, third and even fourth repetition, several of the players collapsed to their hands and knees, gasping for breath after frosty breath as they tried to reinflate their lungs quickly enough to be able to do it all over again.

“The guys who haven’t been to (NHL) rookie camp or main camp, it’s tough for them,” Edwards said. “The other guys have been going for three weeks and they’re in top physical shape. It’ll take a few days for some of these guys to get in shape.”

“I was driving the last three days to get out here, too, so sitting in the car, you just know it’s going to be brutal,” returning forward Brett Hextall said, “and then they told us what the skate was going to be, and it was like, ‘Oh boy, here we go.’ But you know, it’s probably the best way to get into it right away, and we’ll start feeling better from this point on.”

Hextall, a third-year veteran who played college hockey at the University of North Dakota, is one of a handful of returners to a Pirates team that edged its way into the playoffs a year ago. More importantly, he was part of a team that bonded well off the ice, which led to success on it.

“Just from people getting here, right away they know what we’re about, having so many guys from last year that have been through it,” Hextall said. “I felt we had great team chemistry, we played as a team, we played the right way and we had a good year. This year, we want more. It’s good to have these guys come back right away and have a lot of guys back from last year and be able to get right into it and lay the groundwork of what we’re about from the beginning.”

Many of last year’s Portland skaters carried that momentum into the offseason and into training camp with the Coyotes. In the seventh year under current Phoenix GM Don Maloney and the third with Edwards at the helm in Portland, the Pirates sent a solid group of prospects to the NHL camp, several of which are still there, earning longer looks from the top brass.

“There’s nobody that we can say we were really disappointed with how they were in camp,” Edwards said. “Even the young guys, the (Mathieu) Briseboises and the (James) Melindys who came to us late in the year last year — (Lucas) Lessio, he’s still up there — those guys have fared really well,” Edwards said. “It’s exciting for us. It’s taken us a while for us to get to the point where we have all these prospect players. But now we do, now it’s our job to make them better.”

The first day of camp started quickly. Players wore three different colored jerseys and competed in up-tempo drills in groups.

“Some of the guys are just trying to get out of the summer-league tendencies, trying to get back into game shape,” Melindy said. “It’s kind of expected, if you’ve been on the ice the past two weeks, it’s going to show over the guys who haven’t been on at all. The first skate was good, the tempo was high. It’s just paying attention to detail and trying to soak in as much as possible.”

Melindy was a defender for Moncton of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League last season.

Two of the team’s four goalies — Louis Domingue and Chris Rawlings — dressed, as well. Mike Lee and Mark Visentin, the two goalies widely considered the pre-camp favorites to begin the year with the Pirates, arrived late from Phoenix after being late cuts from the NHL camp, and have yet to suit up.

Other familiar players — forward Brendan Shinnimin and defender Brandon Gormley among them — were also late in arriving after only receiving word of their cut from the NHL team on Sunday.

For some, the apparent demotion was simply the result of a number crunch. Gormley, who starred in the QMJHL for Moncton and Shawinigan (where he won a Memorial Cup in 2012), looked particularly good in Phoenix.

“(Gormley) had a great camp,” Edwards said. “It’s all part of the process. It’s hard to play every day in the NHL. He’ll play games, I’m sure he’ll play games in the NHL this year. We’re in a good situation right now.”

The Pirates’ situation likely will get better as the week progresses, as well. In addition to playing an exhibition game against the University of New Brunswick on Wednesday, and a preseason AHL game against Manchester on Saturday, the team will also be getting a few more players back from Phoenix as the Coyotes trim their roster back to the NHL-allowed 23 players.

“They have to get to 23 by next week, and they’re at 31 now, so you all can do the math,” Edwards said. “There could be six, seven more, who knows? There are a couple free agents there, too.”

Portland’s training camp at the MHG Ice Centre continues all week, with practice sessions Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Wednesday’s exhibition against UNB at 1 p.m. is free and open to the public. Saturday’s game against Manchester at 12:30 p.m. will cost $10 for general admission seating, which is limited to the first 500 people through the door.