THE NHL : He Made a Point, Goal Remains

Wayne Gretzky swings his shiny aluminum stick and the puck becomes a blur, whizzing past the goalie at a speed making it barely perceptible.

That triggers the red light. And the roar of the crowd.

The Kings surround their illustrious teammate.

So do his parents. And Gordie Howe, the man whose unbreakable record he has broken.

Announcer Bob Miller tells his audience, “The Great One has become the greatest of them all.”

Wait a minute. Stop the tape. This is a rerun. We’ve already seen it.

Not necessarily.

According to some people, beginning with Howe, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

When Gretzky scored his 1,851st point at the start of last season, breaking Howe’s record, the King center was hailed for scaling his sport’s highest peak.

But since Gretzky reached the 700-goal level last week, a new countdown has begun.

Ahead of him are Phil Esposito at 717, Marcel Dionne at 731 and, finally, Howe at 801.

“I remember when I broke the point thing nothing was even said,” said Howe from Hartford, where he works in the Whalers’ front office. “But when I was going for the goal record (then 544 by Maurice Richard), I was being followed all over by the media.”

A comparison might be drawn to home runs and hits in baseball, to the national attention given Pete Rose when he passed Ty Cobb in hits and the world-wide attention given Hank Aaron when he bettered Babe Ruth by hitting his 715th home run.

Others have also used the analogy.

“When I scored my 714th goal, they called me the Babe Ruth of hockey,” Howe said.

Points are the barometer of the complete player, but the goals provide the glamour and make the stars.

At his present pace, Gretzky should skate past Howe late in the 1992-93 season at the age of 32.

If so, he will have accomplished in only 14 seasons what it took Howe 26 to do.

And when Gretzky does score his 802nd goal, the attendant hoopla may drown out all that went before it.

Will Howe be there to root him on, as he was for the point record?

“He’ll have to call,” Howe said with a laugh. “I don’t know where the hell I’ll be by then.”

Greater than the Great One: Gretzky has predicted that someone may come along someday and do to his records what he has done to Howe’s.

“He’s a clever young man,” Howe said. “And he knows what he is talking about. But I can’t conceive of anyone touching his records. He gets two assists for every goal. By the time he’s done, he’s got to go over 3,000 points and 1,000 goals.

“But rules change. When I came along, you weren’t allowed to throw the puck forward. Everything was passed laterally. And there were no rushing defensemen. Everybody stayed back.

“Now, it’s a lot better (for the offense). You’ve got better equipment, a better game. And there’s going to be more room behind the net to move.”

Gretzky thinks one rule change has hurt the offensive player. In the past, when both teams were penalized, they matched up, four on four, creating a lot more operating room for the skaters. But the four-on-four scheme has since been dropped.

“Guys like myself thrived in the four-on-four,” Gretzky said. “Not having it hurts offensive guys like Brett Hull and Mario (Lemieux). They would score a lot more in the four-on-four.”

Greater than the numbers: Ten years after his retirement at 52, Howe still doesn’t agree with the NHL’s decision not to include statistics accumulated in the old World Hockey Assn.

Had they done so, Howe, who played with Houston Aeros and the Whalers in the WHA, would have 975 goals and 2,358 points over 32 seasons.

“I count my WHA numbers,” he said. “I don’t care if anybody else does.”

Not that he is trying to keep an edge over Gretzky. He is equally adamant about counting Gretzky’s single season in the WHA, which would give him 748 goals and 2,055 points before Tuesday night’s game.

“They wouldn’t allow (Gretzky) to win the rookie award his first year in the NHL because he had already been in a professional league,” Howe said. “Then they turn around and say they will not count his goals and points from that year.”

The 400 club: Gretzky’s teammate Dave Taylor recently scored his 400th professional goal.

He still remembers his first, though, and he’s not talking about his pro career.

“I remember the first goal I ever scored,” Taylor said. “I was 5 years old. And what I remember most was that my mother wasn’t sitting there at that moment and didn’t get to see it.”

Playing games early: Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda took in last week’s King-Ranger game at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

Afterward in the press room, Lasorda, with a crowd around him, was asked about his new acquisition, outfielder Darryl Strawberry.

“I can see it now,” Lasorda said. “Darryl comes back here and is up at Shea Stadium with the bases loaded. The Mets call in John Franco.”

By now, Lasorda’s voice has risen a couple of octaves.

“Strawberry swings and hits it w-a-a-y out . . . “

At this point, Lasorda stops and winks at a man listening, with an amused smile on his face, across the room--John Franco.