I think that's more of a function to changes in coaching philosophy. I didn't see a lot of instances where teams would pass the puck hard from their own zone to a teammate stationed around the red line, who then tips it along its merry way into the attacking zone until the last 10-15 years. Guys seemed to instead prefer to make a breakout pass to someone in the neutral zone, who would then skate it up to the red line before dumping the puck in. Granted, the old two-line pass rule probably had a lot to do with that as well.
