Hockey's Solar Eclipse: 5 things fans may not see again in their lifetime

Monday's total solar eclipse is a big deal. Unless you're going city to city chasing these things down, chances are you will only see the moon completely cover the sun once in your lifetime - if at all.

Hockey has it's own versions of total solar eclipses. If you've witnessed the following five things, consider yourself lucky, as there's a very good chance you'll never see them again.

Wayne Gretzky

There will never be another Wayne Gretzky. Not just because of how skilled a player he was, or because so many of his records won't ever be touched, but no player will ever transcend the game the way The Great One did. Gretzky helped grow the game worldwide, but perhaps made his biggest impact in Los Angeles and the southern United States.

A player as big, dominant as Zdeno Chara

You might think the 6-foot-9 Zdeno Chara - the tallest player in NHL history - is on this list because he's actually big enough to block the sun and create his own Zdeno Eclipse, but no. Will there ever be a player as tall as Big Z? Maybe. Will there be players more dominant? Certainly. But it's difficult to envision a player ever matching his combination of size and influence.

Any 6-foot-9 players that come into the league will be hard-pressed to match Chara's skating ability - obviously crucial in today's NHL - for such a large human being.

The 40-year-old has been remarkably durable throughout his 19-year career, while big men across all sports often find their bodies breaking down at a much younger age. He has logged 1,350 regular-season games and 147 playoff contests. He has done so with style, too, winning the Norris Trophy as the league's top D-man in 2008-09 and captaining the Bruins to a Stanley Cup in 2011.

Teams averaging 4 goals per game

In the 1981-82 season, teams averaged 4.01 goals per game - the sixth-highest total of all time. Much of the '80s was the same way. Many fans claim '80s hockey was the NHL at it's peak, and there is zero chance hockey will ever be this high-scoring again.

No matter what the NHL does in the future in an effort to increase scoring, whether they make goalie equipment even smaller or make the nets bigger, the game is far too structured, goalies are too good, and there is too much player-wide parity across the league for games to become river hockey. Even if they went to 4-on-4 full time, coaches would figure out how to defend it.

2 rookies recording 100 points in same season

In the 2005-06 season, an 18-year-old Sidney Crosby tallied 102 points, not be outdone by a 20-year-old Alex Ovechkin, who recorded 106 points and took home the Calder Trophy.

Since then, no rookie has reached the century mark in a campaign. The likelihood of two rookies doing so again is virtually nil. Not only are Crosby and Ovechkin generational talents, but their point totals were aided by the high-scoring first season in the post-lockout era. All the new rules led to a league-record 5.85 power-play opportunities per game by team.

The rookie class of 2016-17 is regarded as one of the best ever, and not a single player even sniffed 100 points.

A player racking up 300 PIMs in 1 season

As recently as the early 2000s, it was routine for a player to register 300 PIMs in a season. The most recent member of the 300-PIM club was Zenon Konopka back in 2010-11. He will undoubtedly be the last.

Enforcers are few and far between in today's NHL. Teams value players with skill on their fourth lines. Once every player is wearing a visor, it will be difficult to imagine a player recording 200 PIMs, let alone 300.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)

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