It’s Not Easy When Your Name Is Gretzky

The player with GRETZKY on his uniform and a somewhat familiar face steals the puck in front of his own goal, skates swiftly to center ice and unleashes a slap shot that sails into the net.

That’s about where the similarities end between this Gretzky and his older brother.

Keith Gretzky, 22, is playing for a mediocre Scottish team that doesn’t even have a home rink. Wayne Gretzky, 29, is adding to his NHL-record scoring total for the Los Angeles Kings.

While Wayne is known as “The Great One,” Keith has been nicknamed “The Good One” by teammates and is trying to establish himself as a player.

“You can’t compare Keith to Wayne,” said former NHL journeyman Rocky Saganuik, now Keith’s coach with the Ayr Raiders. “For many years he’s been stuck in a Wayne Gretzky shadow and he hasn’t been able to develop as Keith Gretzky. He’s deteriorated, he’s rusted out a bit.”

Ayr has the same black-and-white uniforms as Los Angeles and Keith resembles his older brother. His style on the ice is similar and he is more apt--like Wayne--to try to poke a puck away than lower his shoulder and apply a hard check. Both are centers.

But Keith lacks the quickness of his sibling and is smaller at about 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds. Once voted the smartest player in Canadian junior hockey, he simply has not been big enough to survive in the brutal North American game.

The name recognition is lower in Britain. As he took the ice recently for the opening faceoff against the Solihull Barons, a local fan asked, “Who’s this new Canadian they have?”

His anonymity did not extend to everyone in the crowd, however. Sitting a couple of rows behind the Ayr bench was 17-year-old Samantha Walker, wearing a Kings jersey with Wayne’s No. 99 on the back.

“I think he’s good, but it must be pretty difficult trying to live up to expectations,” she said.

The younger Gretzky was not surprised when a journalist asked the customary question about being Wayne’s brother.

“Of course that’s a problem, people expect a lot,” he answered. “I’ve gotten used to it -- sometimes it’s a pain, sometimes it’s not.”

Keith scored 59 points in 68 games last season bouncing between Rochester of the American Hockey League and Flint of the International Hockey League, but asked for a move to Finland at the end of the season so he could get more ice time.

He had six goals and six assists in 23 games for the Phoenix Roadrunners of the IHL this season when he requested the transfer to Ayr. Still suffering from jet lag, he had five goals and four assists in his first two games for the Raiders in mid-January.

Gretzky said his hardest adjustments have been to British refereeing, which players say tends to favor the home team, and to the lack of games.

British teams have only a 36-game league schedule and practice far less than North American counterparts. Ayr is awaiting the opening of a new home rink and now manages only one practice a week.

“It’s tough getting used to your teammates when you don’t play together that much. Now I’m mentally getting into it,” he said, tucking a pinch of snuff under his lip. “And I don’t know who I’m playing against. When you play against guys eight times a year that really helps a lot.”

Saganuik said Gretzky’s on-ice savvy will be better rewarded when his teammates get used to his slick passing, but refused to speculate on whether Keith has an NHL future.

“His life in hockey is in Europe for now and maybe for the next couple of years,” the coach said.

Gretzky is not thinking about the future, only about Ayr’s struggle to grab the last spot in the six-team British playoffs.

On Super Bowl night he helped the Raiders score two goals in the final 89 seconds to defeat Solihull 5-4 on ice that had to be shoveled between periods because the Zamboni machine was broken.

After a brief celebration in a locker room the size of a kitchen, the player with the famous name was reminded again that he is not in the NHL.

“C’mon, Keith, we’d better go,” Saganuik said. “The bus has to be returned by 5 a.m.”