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 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 felt like the last three days I've defended myself over something that absolutely and unequivocally never happened, that I was not involved with. The three days have been horrible and I'm too tired, mentally and physically to talk any more about it. There's nothing for me to talk about.
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 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.
I basically told him he's been a big part of our team, and we're not going to just give him away; we're not going to loan him to any team. I was honest with him. If we were offered a couple of really good, young players that would help us for a long time we'd have to seriously consider it . . . . But we're not phoning people, we're not calling teams. At this point in time, I don't anticipate moving Curtis.
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.
I don't understand it. We played two tremendous games Thursday and Saturday. The success of this team is pretty simple. We're not a great goal-scoring machine, so if we think that we're going to play that way we're never going to be successful. The success this team has had is when it has played methodically well, sound defense and doesn't give any chances to the opposition.
He just has to get off to the kind of start that he's capable of and it's as simple as that.
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.