Yesterday's New York Times article on Blocking Shots in NHL was interesting. I was particularly amazed to see the growth in the trend! In the 1997/98 season, the Rangers led the league with 871 blocked shots. This year, the Islanders are on a pace to block 1,430! That's something else... In my era, the equipment was certainly not of a standard as today's; we didn't wear helmets, let alone ones with plastic visors; neither did we use teeth guards... But we nonetheless still blocked a lot of shots, as I recall. Today, the NHL have so-called "shot blocking teams" and the players wear extra padding made of kevlar in their gloves, shin pads and skates... That's evolution, I guess.