Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Gretzky
Wayne Douglas Gretzky CCis a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey Leaguefor four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "The Great One", he has been called "the greatest hockey player ever" by many sportswriters, players, and the NHL itself. He is the leading scorer in NHL history, with more goals and more assists than any other player. He scored more assists than any other player scored total points,...
NationalityCanadian
ProfessionHockey Player
Date of Birth26 January 1961
CityBrantford, Canada
CountryCanada
Over the last couple of months, I've really been leaning toward stepping in and taking on this responsibility, ... I'm really excited about it. I'm really excited to be back in the locker room and back on the ice. I'm sort of back on the hot seat. And I'm looking forward to it. I don't have to sit up top anymore. I can be on the ice. That's the part I'm looking forward to.
They played like a team that was desperate to win and we played like a team that was standing around. Not battling and taking penalties. You win and lose as a group. No question tonight it's a total team effort as far as the loss went. We had no battle and had no fight.
Ballard's hit tonight was a tremendous hit. I haven't seen that in hockey in 30 years, a hip check like that. We've got to keep believing what we're trying to accomplish here and stay within ourselves, not get too emotionally excited and not get too down, simple as that.
You miss 100% of the shots you never take.
It is kind of ironic how when I broke into professional hockey at 17 I was told that I was too small, and too slow, and that I wouldn't make it to the NHL. And now it has flip-flopped,
I watched how fast he skated and how hard he shot that puck. I wish I had an extra No. 7 in a red jersey. I could have found a spot for him on my power play.
I watched him and how much he enjoyed it. His success was probably a factor on my wanting to be a coach.
I will say it one more time, I said it the other night, I didn't bet, it didn't happen, it's not going to happen, it hasn't happened, it's not something that I've done.
His records speak for themselves. He's a consummate professional.
Hopefully this is the start of a great year for everyone in the league. It was nice to be part of it, although we would have loved to have won.
Hopefully, they can come up with a compromise that everyone's happy with because it would be great to see us keep playing hockey.
The Rangers are the most loved/hated team in hockey. I know from playing there that anywhere they go, city to city, whether it's Miami or Dallas or Chicago or Phoenix, the Rangers have a tremendous following of New Yorkers.
We looked at the tape and the referee made a good call.
Our Achilles' heel has been killing penalties at home. They get a power play goal and it's a 2-1 hockey game. You get the number of points they have as a team by hard work, and we knew they weren't going to quit by any means.