Controlled aggression.

It is an intense discipline, one that is derived not from God-given prowess, but from a lifetime of focused mental and physical chiseling.

To conquer the uncontrollable urge to release one’s anger means a lifetime of hardening not for the soft of heart, for aggression is a relentless force, one that few can harness, let alone master.

When a hockey player exudes this, he is of a special breed. He is a throwback; a reminder of the days when there were no helmets and no holds-barred, and an elbow to the mouth or a puck in the eye meant a few stitches or a bag of ice and a keen ear for your line to be called.

Gone, however, are the days when rosters at every snow-covered State U. from Portland, Maine to Portland, Ore. were chock-full of such unbreakables, replaced instead by sleek skaters and cerebral forecheckers needed to comply with the now-fully entrenched era of dump-and-chase and the neutral zone trap.

Needless to say, Stephen Jacobs is arguably more appreciated within the Massachusetts ice hockey program than any of its marquee names.

While Thomas P