Flex rating changes over the years?

[jonesy9020 77]

Here's my current rotation from most used to least:

1. Intermediate 75 Flex Original Easton Synergy (~03 model with blue background on Synergy and Easton Logos for the Int. model)

2. Intermediate 70 Flex Sher-Wood T90 (2012 model with yellow background behind Sher-Wood graphics)

3. Senior 85 Flex CCM Vector 8.0 tapered shaft w/ Mission L-2 blade (2007 shaft (guess), black shaft with red and yellow graphics, not a bad shaft for 10 bucks on ebay)

4. Senior 85 Flex Easton EQ30 (2010)

Basically I'm wondering if sticks with the same printed flex ratings have gotten whippier over the years. I say this because both in game play and flexing the sticks, my '03 Synergy 75 flex feels stiffer than the '10 EQ30 85 flex. Beyond that, the 2012 Sherwood feels WAY whippier than the Synergy, and the CCM is probably the stiffest of the group, but not that much stiffer than the Synergy.

Obviously golf is totally different, but I know that Callaway realized most amateur players were playing with shafts way too stiff for their strength/ability level a while ago and dialed back the stiffness on their clubs to try to get players into shafts that worked for their game, while still letting them buy "stiff" (marked) shafts to protect their ego. Wondering if the same thing happened in hockey a few years back and the flex scale changed for some companies. If not, I have no idea how an 85 flex senior stick ends up whippier than a 75 int from the same brand.

[Chadd 916]

Pushing down in the center of a shaft to determine the force required to load it one inch is less accurate with tapered sticks and engineered kick points. I think a more accurate way to measure would be to record the amount of force required to load the shaft at the blade X number of inches.