More like 95, mildly and then it skyrocketed up to 2000. Scoring was still high in 93 and 94. Hell, Hull was coming off several 70 and 80 goal seasons at that point, scored almost 60 in 93.
Hull was putting up impressive numbers right up to the lockout. He was just such an unbelievably gifted goal scorer pretty much right to the end of his career.
I think the foundations of the dead puck were set in 1995 when lemaire showed how successful his system could be with the devils, but it still took a few years for it to really settle in.
I mean, you saw warnings after 95 with teams like Florida making it to the finals, and the devils continuing to be the devils. Hitchcock was the new guy in dallas at this time and applying the same kind of philosophy.
You could tell where hockey was going, but I think scoring remained relatively high. It was sometime during or after the late 90s expansion where it really felt like the game had entered into a new lower scoring era.