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
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.
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.
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.
He works harder than any athlete I've ever been around as far as off-season conditioning goes. He's a maniac . . . I see him playing another three years no question. He could be our ( Julio ) Franco .
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.
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.
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'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 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.
The ball is a little bit in his court. We want to keep him. He?s a consummate pro and a wonderful man.