I Needed An Ice Pack After Hearing About Sharks' D-Man Marc-Edouard Vlasic's New NHL Record

Aside from maybe dropping the gloves, I don't know that there's anything that can earn you the respect of your teammates more than blocking shots. Now, there's a new NHL shot-blocking king, and his name is Marc-Edouard Vlasic.

The 37-year-old defenseman has spent his entire career with the San Jose Sharks since breaking into the league during the 2006-07 season. On Tuesday night, he put his name in the record books during the Sharks' 6-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres, per the Associated Press.

Since the NHL started keeping tabs on shot blocks during the 2005-06 season, the record holder has been Mark Giordano who racked up 2,164 blocked shots during his time with the Calgary Flames, Seattle Kraken, and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Vlasic came into the night tied with Giordano, and he took the record for himself a little over two minutes into the first period. He eventually added another block, which brings his career total to 2,166.

"That's a lot of blocked shots," Vlasic said after being told he was officially the new record holder. "Pretty cool, I take pride in playing good defensively. Blocking shots is one of those things."

Think about this for a moment. Imagine having some NHLer who can blast a slap shot at well over 90 mph wind-up to put some rubber on net, then jumping in front of it and letting it hit you.

Now imagine having to do it another 2,165 times over the next 20 years or so.

Shot blocking isn't easy, and while, yes, players wear a lot of protection, it usually only does you any good if you're completely square to the shooter. That's typically not the case given how fast the game moves at the NHL level.

So, I'm sure Vlasic has spent many a night after games icing some serious bruises, but that's what it takes to be one of the best pure defensemen of the last 20 years.

Things haven't been easy for the Sharks over the last couple of years, so it's awesome to see Vlasic get his name in the record books after so many years of stellar play.

However, it should be noted that there are a couple of guys who could conceivably catch and then pass Vlasic. Vegas' Alex Pietrangelo is currently sitting on 2,071 blocks, according to the NHL's records, while Washington's John Carlson is just behind him in fourth place all-time with 2,066.