from Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic,

In the 1980s and 1990s, on the occasions when Ray Ferraro roamed the ice at the same time as Al Iafrate, the forward was always on high alert. At any moment, Iafrate was a threat to bomb a slap shot that could cave in Ferraro’s helmet, to say nothing of whistling past the helpless goalie.

“It was high. Or low. And hard,” recalls Ferraro, now an ESPN analyst. “It was just erratic enough that it scared the heck out of everybody.”

Things have changed.

The one-timer remains a critical offensive tool. Goalies do not enjoy tracking a cross-ice pass, fighting to see a shot through traffic and getting in front of a rocket.

The standalone slap shot, though, has become a fossil. The maneuver, once so signature to hockey that it is the title of the sport’s definitive movie, is on its way out.

“It’s like an old skate save that goalies used to make,” says Ferraro. “It just doesn’t happen.”

Why? The Athletic took that question to players, coaches and analysts.

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