I agree that the goalie pads should be made as small as they were in the '80s. But that's the only '80s like quality I'd like to see in the league. Goalie pads were tiny and insignificant in the 50's, and scoring was pretty much as low as it's ever been in the league. We're not going to see another era of constant 6-5 wins, because that's not hockey. That's not the way the game should be played. I don't know why there's all of this **** being done to recreate the '80s. To me the run and gun "forget about defense" circus show cheapens the game. A game in which, more than almost any other professional sport, the W is all that matters and players are willing to do anything to get it, sacrificing personal numbers, lying down in front of 100mph slap shots, dropping the gloves to fight with bare knuckles, getting crunched head first into the boards in an effort to make a good first pass, and for full games sometimes forgetting about scoring and concentrating on shutting down the best player on the other team while the rest of your team tries to score.
Footage I see from the '80s just reminds me of a (very high quality) pond hockey game with the occasional hissy fit being thrown by couple of guys trying to keep each other in the league.
BUT, back to the thread title. Orr was the first one to come to mind. I know he's not a star, but Anton Volchenkov is unbelievable at it. It's one of my favourite parts of the game and if they took it out (which I don't think they will), I'd be livid.