Gretzky’s Skates Don’t Need the Rockets

On one of their goodwill tours of Canada a couple of years ago, Soviet hockey officials were ushered into a Hall of Fame exhibit at Quebec City.

As they moved through the displays of hockey memorabilia, the Soviets were impressed. Then they got to the case holding Wayne Gretzky’s first pair of skates, a Spartan set of kids’ skates with a small boot, a strap over the top and wide blades. There, they became mesmerized.

“The expression on their faces was one of wonder,” said Scotty Morrison, president of the Hall of Fame. “They seemed amazed that these simple skates could have belonged to Gretzky. They looked at them as if they expected to find tiny rockets on the backs of them.”

They didn’t, of course. Gretzky supplies his own propulsion.

His accomplishments are not built on speed, size or brawn. Other players are faster, bigger and stronger. The Kings’ Gretzky thrives instead on a sort of sixth sense about the game, an innate intelligence about where to be, when to be there and what to do when he gets there. He is a Rembrandt on skates, an artist excelling at a most demanding craft.

Even on the other side of the hockey world, Gretzky is the best known player in his sport, a man who dominated the game from the moment he first stepped on the ice. He is honored now as the Associated Press Male Athlete of the Decade.

Gretzky received 307 votes in balloting by a panel of sports writers and broadcasters, far outdistancing quarterback Joe Montana of the San Francisco 49ers, who had 85. Magic Johnson of the Lakers was third with 59, followed by Carl Lewis (12), Nolan Ryan (11), Larry Bird (5), Bo Jackson (4) and Walter Payton (3).

By age 20, Gretzky broke the NHL single-season scoring record. He’s been scoring in bunches ever since and, as the decade ends, he holds or shares 10 career, 15 playoff and 20 regular-season records.

How good is Gretzky?

Consider hat tricks, the scoring of three goals in a game: Marcel Dionne, who retired this season after 18 years in the league, had 25 of them. Gretzky in his first 10 seasons had 32, as well as nine four-goal games and four five-goal games.

That’s how good.

Perhaps Gretzky’s most cherished record came in the first days of the current season, when he passed Gordie Howe to become, at 28, the highest scorer in NHL history. Howe scored 1,850 points in 26 seasons and 1,767 games. Gretzky passed him in his 11th season and 780th game.

Consider that. The highest scorer in history. More points than any other player in the history of the game. More than legends such as Rocket Richard and Bobby Hull. More than Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito. More than anybody.

Gretzky starred for 10 years in Edmonton before being traded to Los Angeles before the 1988 season. The move south hardly disturbed his production. He led the league in assists for the 10th consecutive year and won his ninth MVP trophy.

He is the only player in history to score 200 points in a season, a plateau he has reached four times. He set the record for goals with 92 in 1981-82, and then set the record for assists with 163 in 1985-86. During the 1983-84 season, he scored at least one point in an incredible 51 consecutive games. In the decade of the ‘80s, he was the NHL’s MVP nine times and the scoring champion eight times.

No wonder the Soviets were looking for rockets on his skates.