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
The ball is a little bit in his court. We want to keep him. He?s a consummate pro and a wonderful man.
It looked like he cheated a little to his glove side, which left his stick side a little bit open. We talked about it a little bit on the bench. Usually we don't talk about it but this time we did.
We got a little bit lucky. It's hard to keep all of your good, young defensemen. He's a tremendous young man who works hard every single game, every single practice. He never cheats in one drill, and that's how he plays.
Rick worked with him a little bit and showed him a couple of things. It was a nice deflection, nice goal, and that's the way you're going to beat a team like that. You're going to get kind of a weird goal, crash the net. Fancy plays aren't going to work against that team; they're too good.
We're here for a little bit of a tour for four or five days, just to get together and kind of talk about the season. The players everybody is talking about are all playing well, and decisions are very difficult. No matter what we do, there is going to be a controversy.
I'm thrilled to be sort of back in the hot seat.
I'm thrilled to be back in the hot seat, ... This is what I love, what I know, and I felt I was the best person to coach this team. We finally feel like we've got a pretty good hockey club, and I wanted to be part of it, simple as that.
In a lot of ways he reminds me of ( Mark ) Messier . He's solid. He's hard. He just wants to win.
I like how hard this team played (on the trip) and how unselfish it was. . . . We're playing as a group and that's most important. The outcomes have been better because we're playing better as a group.
I'm just too tired mentally and physically to talk any more about it. There's nothing more for me to talk about. And if you have questions for people involved, contact them.
It's not a question of shutting him (Thornton) down. It's a question of playing against him hard and our guys have played against him hard, and we played against him hard.
It's not going to be easy every day, but I'm going to work hard, and our players are going to work hard, ... I look forward to this as a new chapter in my life, and I can't wait to get started.
The biggest difference between L.A. and Edmonton was that instead of people looking at me I was looking at them.
Not much really to add to what I said two days ago. Nothing for me to talk about. I'm not involved. It's been a hard week for my family.