Gretzky Ties Howe’s Scoring Record

He was called the Great Gretzky even before he played his first National Hockey League game. On Sunday night, in only his 11th season and before the adoring fans of his former team, he pulled even with Gordie Howe, hockey’s greatest all-time scorer.

Wayne Gretzky, at age 28, tied Howe’s record of 1,850 points with an assist early in the first period of the Los Angeles Kings’ game against the Edmonton Oilers.

Gretzky fed defenseman Tom Laidlaw, who put the puck in front of the net, and Bernie Nicholls knocked it past Edmonton goaltender Bill Ranford at 4:32 for the game’s opening goal.

It was fitting that Gretzky tied the record against the Oilers, who he led to four Stanley Cup titles in nine seasons. Oilers owner Peter Pocklington traded him to Los Angeles on Aug. 9, 1988 in the biggest trade in NHL history.

Gretzky was revered by Edmonton fans and left the city in tears on the day of the trade. He had predicted before the season that he would break Howe’s mark on his first visit of the season to the Northlands Coliseum.

Gretzky’s specialness, Howe said, made the loss of the record easier to take.

“If it was, pardon the expression, some clown breaking it, it would have bothered me,” Howe said earlier. “But not Wayne.”

Howe was at the Northlands Coliseum Sunday night, along with NHL president John Ziegler and Gretzky’s family. Howe scored 801 goals and added 1,049 assists in 26 seasons. Gretzky, playing his 780th game, was one point short of a tie going into the game and the Edmonton fans were rooting for the record to fall.

Gretzky already had the NHL assists record with 1,209. He’s fourth in goals with 640 but Howe’s record of 801 doesn’t figure to last too much longer.

“This one is different from all the rest,” said Gretzky, who holds or shares 51 NHL records. “There’s no urgency to do it.”

The swiftness is what makes it so special. Gretzky is scoring points 126 percent faster than Howe. If he plays the same number of games (1,767) and continues this pace, he would finish with 4,196 points.

At similar paces in their quests, Hank Aaron would have hit 1,614 home runs in breaking Babe Ruth’s record of 714 and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar would have scored 71,007 points (a 67.9 average) in breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s National Basketball Assn. record of 31,419.

That’s why Howe realized shortly after he began playing that Gretzky would easily top his records.

“When he started pumping out 200 points, 80 goals, you knew it wasn’t going to last long,” Howe said. “One year he got 215 points and that was 85 more than the next guy. I got 85 points one year and broke a record.”

Gretzky’s been scoring so fast that he’s been the league’s MVP in nine of 10 seasons since joining the NHL. He has seven scoring titles, was an All-Star in all 10 years and has been MVP of the Stanley Cup playoffs twice.

Howe, Gretzky’s idol, took over the all-time scoring lead from Montreal’s Maurice Richard on Jan. 16, 1960, when he scored his 947th point. Howe said he didn’t recall a big fuss being made.

“I can’t remember. I played 32 years without a helmet,” he said, adding in his years with the World Hockey Association.

Joe Malone led the NHL in scoring in its first year, 1917-18, but was overtaken in career points the next season by Cy Denneny. Malone went back ahead in 1919-20, but Denneny overtook him again in February of 1923.

Howie Morenz took the lead in 1931 and was passed by Nels Stewart in 1937-38. Bill Cowley went ahead in 1945-46 and Elmer Lach went in front in 1952-53. Richard took over the next season.

Now Gretzky has equaled Howe. And he did it in the most special way: against the Oilers.

“This summer we were talking about Gordie’s record,” Edmonton’s Kevin Lowe said, “and Wayne told me he had a chance to do it in Edmonton. And I’m saying to myself, ‘Wayne’s the only guy in the world who would know what the schedule is in July.’ ”