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
There's going to be a lot of good unrestricted free-agent defensemen (available) this summer. We're in the game for those guys now. We have the opportunity to bring in some impact players.
There's no bubble for Stevie Y. If he's not playing great, and his knee is bothering him, he'd be the first guy to tell me.
Obviously you don't replace a guy like Mario, not only what he does on the ice but his presence on the locker-room, how much the players respect him and how much they look up to him,
What records show are consistency, and that's what he's shown in his career. When a guy gets that many wins it's from a lot of effort and a lot of hard work and a lot of hours. I know the players tonight wanted him to get this at home.
We need to get guys re-energized and refocused. This should be the greatest week of their lives ... they should be having fun.
It was a hard fought game, our guys played a tough game. They're a team that plays really hard and our guys really came to work tonight.
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.
You look at what he did at the World Cup and what he did in the Stanley Cup final and all the way through the playoffs for Tampa Bay. He goes to another level. We love guys like that on our team.
Let me tell you, if Luongo doesn't play the way he did in the Czech game, we don't win the World Cup. It's as simple as that. And we now know what a guy like him can do.
Growing up, I was always the small guy.
The 2002 (Olympic) team was a great team, we won the gold medal, they deserved all the accolades that they got. But this team seems to have a little more depth and maybe a little more talent to pick from. So it makes the job of picking the right 23 guys even more difficult.
Listen, first of all, my wife is my best friend. My love for her is deeper than anything. The reality is, I'm not involved, I wasn't involved and I'm not going to be involved. Am I concerned for both of them Sure there's concern from me. I'm more worried about them than me. I'm like you guys, I'm trying to figure it all out.
Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull and Jean Béliveau probably looked at us in the '80s and said, "These guys are soft. We used to take the train."
It's really hard. And it's harder today because of the salary cap. It starts in September at training camp - getting every guy on the same page, being as mentally and physically as focused as you can be. Then in April and May, you basically spend eight weeks practising, watching video and playing games. That's your life.