When 2,000th Is Down, There’s a Lifetime to Go

Hockey lovers probably won’t remember forever where they were on the night Wayne Gretzky got his 2,000th point.

For one thing, Gretzky is still so young that eventually we will all be witness to his 2,500th point. . . .

And his 1,000th goal. . . .

And his 3,000th point. . . .

And his 1,500th goal. . . .

And then that magical night around the year 2005 when Paulina Gretzky, just up from the juniors, joins her Dad on the ice.

And then, oh, you know, everybody will start calling her the Even Greater Gretz, and she’ll start scoring her own goals, and we’ll start adding onto their NHL record for father-daughter points, and the good name of Gretzky will live on and on and on.

The night the guy got his 2,000th point?

Who’ll remember?

It doesn’t send chills down the spines of Americans--not the ones south of the Canadian border--the way Henry Aaron’s 715th home run did or Nolan Ryan’s 5,000th strikeout or Pete Rose’s 4,192nd hit, partly because hockey is not this nation’s national pastime, but partly because it’s just another wonderful day here in Wayne’s World.

Gretzky himself would just as soon get this latest milestone over with, so everybody can go back to concentrating on the rest of the hottest-thing-on-ice Kings, who beat the Calgary Flames, 6-4, Tuesday night at the Forum.

Gretz got an assist on a Tony Granato goal 99 seconds--yes, 99 seconds; this guy is spooky--into the second period, giving him 1,998 points for his storybook career.

And during the final two minutes, Gretzky spoon-fed a pass to Bob Kudelski for his 1,999th point--yeah, nineteen ninety-nine --and little Paulina, seated on her mommy’s lap, really seemed to like it.

This means the fresh prince of Inglewood will come up with the big Two Zero Zero Zero sometime this weekend in Winnipeg, which will be the biggest news event in Manitoba since a moose got loose in the general store.

And Gretz will smile sheepishly and say he couldn’t have done it without his teammates, and he will be sincere. Of course he couldn’t have done it without 2,000 sticks and 2,000 pucks, either, but that’s the trouble with professional sports. Equipment never gets any credit.

Next day, Gretzky will simply get started scoring his next 2,000 points, which should take him a little beyond the turn of the century, when hockey will be played on Astro-Ice with an aluminum puck.

Wayne and his wife, Janet Jones, got comfy on Arsenio Hall’s TV couch Monday night, and Janet said she really likes that new aluminum stick her husband has been using, because it gleams.

Just for the record, so does her husband.

And, further for the record, let’s make sure that everybody knows what a distinguished achievement this 2,000th point is for the favorite son of Brantford, Ontario.

The next-leading scorer in hockey history is Gordie Howe, who scored 1,850 points.

Wayne Gretzky is 29. Gordie Howe, as most of us know, played until he was something like 65, then collected Social Security checks for a while, then came out of retirement and played until his 85th birthday.

No, seriously . . . know how many more games Howe played than Gretzky? Nearly 900 more, that’s how many.

The man played hockey before anybody even invented aluminum. He played a long, long time.

And so did Marcel Dionne, who will have his number retired when the Kings return home Nov. 8.

Know how many points did Dionne score? He scored 1,771. Know how many more games Dionne played than Gretzky? Nearly 500 more, that’s how many.

Young as he is, Gretzky already has set NHL records for most assists, most games with three-or-more goals, most 100-point seasons, most career Stanley Cup points, most goals in one season, most assists in one season, most short-handed goals in a playoff game, most times making a tough shot look easy, most incredible passes by one man in a career, most fans who still can’t believe their eyes, and, oh, you know.

This season, Gretzky is out to get 200 points and take the Kings to the promised land. So far, it looks as though such goals could be both scored and accomplished.

And the 2,000th point?

People won’t be talking about it for long. It won’t have historic value. It won’t be the stuff of legends.

It’ll just be another notch on the stick of a legend.