I'm with Kev. I consider myself blessed to have seen the greatest play in his prime. And those 80s Oilers were simply stacked with talent.
Some things are comparable across eras though. Why hadn't anyone before Gretzky been able to even come close to the kinds of numbers he put up. Also, goaltenders were hardly incompetent - Vasilevsky played his 300th game the other night, and in the Leafs broadcast they flashed a stat that he had the 2nd most wins of all time in those first 300 at 195 games. The leader? Ken Dryden. Also, 42 of Vas's wins were in OT/shootout.
Like Kev said, he was like sticking a 16-year old in a league of 8-year olds. It was crazy how much better (particularly between the ears) he was.
Hey, I never thought Sawchuck's 103 shutouts would ever be broken, but Brodeur did it. There's a chance that Ovi could do it, and it'd be impressive as shit if he did. If anything though, I'm actually rooting against it.
I wish Mario had been able to be healthy. He too was in a league of his own.