Jay Bouwmeester (4) used a safer shot blocking technique than Jed Ortmeyer, who went horizontal to stop the puck. Doug Benc/Getty Images

The shot block is its own reward. This overt act of selflessness, putting yourself in the way of a slap shot that might be traveling more than 90 mph, isn't formally celebrated by the league as much as, say, face-offs, but blocks will show up in each team's video session, a visual pat on the back from the last game that also reinforces expectations for the next. "You don't see guys signing huge contracts because they block shots well," Edmonton Oilers left wing Ethan Moreau says. "But we saw how valuable it was for us in the playoffs last year [when the Oilers reached Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals]. It was one of the keys to our success. If you block 20 shots a game, that's maybe two or three good scoring chances [you prevent]. But it comes at a price. [Teams] have had significant injuries from guys blocking shots."

Maybe shot blockers don't rank with race car drivers on the actuarial tables, but the act can be as reckless as bump-drafting into a turn at Daytona. In January 2000 Montreal Canadiens forward Trent McCleary, huge on moxie, small on technique, laid out and took a career-ending shot off the throat by Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Chris Therien; McCleary survived only because doctors performed an emergency tracheotomy. While playing for the St. Louis Blues in the 1998 playoffs, Anaheim Ducks defenseman Chris Pronger suffered what doctors said was a heart attack when a puck shot by the Detroit Red Wings' Dmitri Mironov struck him in the chest and caused his heart to skip a beat. Those were dramatic occupational hazards. The standard shot blocking injury is the broken foot: Two months ago Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Tim Gleason broke his right foot blocking a slapper by the Florida Panthers' Olli Jokinen and limped around the defensive zone for the next minute because the Hurricanes were unable to clear the puck on the penalty kill. Gleason's act of courage wasn't as extreme as the sad case of Phoenix Coyotes defenseman Nick Boynton, who sustained a fractured left foot on Nov. 9 and played five more games before having it X-rayed. (He wound up missing the next 20.)