What happened to them?

They basically disappeared after 1996. Are the shooters that bad? The goalies that much better?

The checking looks as bad as it ever has.

What happened? Is the PK that much better league-wide?

I'd think with the newer rules favoring the offense - nothing cleared the front of the net like a good crosscheck - that the shooters would be ringing up the occasional five goal game. It hasn't happened. Only two of those games since 1996.