THE NHL / HELENE ELLIOTT : Doubting Him Was a Great Mistake

He was too scrawny to survive in the NHL, scouts and general managers said with knowing nods. Didn’t have much of a shot. Couldn’t score on a breakaway if the Stanley Cup depended on it. They laughed over the 46-goal season he recorded as a teen-ager in the World Hockey Assn. In the NHL, where men are men and elbows to the jaw are dispensed without mercy, he would be just another failed phenom.

Yeah, this Wayne Gretzky kid had no future.

Neither did another scrawny, blond small-town boy who joined the pro basketball ranks that same year, 1979. He couldn’t jump, couldn’t shoot and he was destined to be a casualty in the nightly wars under the basket. Larry Bird had no chance, either.

Gretzky still doesn’t have what players call a heavy shot, one that stings goaltenders’ hands. He stopped growing at a modest 6 feet, never attaining the bulk of a Phil Esposito. And he has yet to master the art of scoring on breakaways. If he had developed that knack, he joked last week, “I probably would be well beyond the 802.”

Despite lacking those supposedly vital assets, Gretzky has become the NHL’s career goal-scoring leader.

With a neat but unspectacular wrist shot from the near edge of the left faceoff circle, Gretzky on Wednesday scored his 802nd goal and broke Gordie Howe’s NHL record of 801. The Great One became the greatest one, grabbing the only significant NHL scoring record he didn’t have after he broke Howe’s NHL point record in 1989, by scoring the second goal in the Kings’ 6-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks.

To appreciate his feat, think of this: To score 800 goals, a player would have to average 40 goals per season for 20 seasons. Or 20 goals for 40 seasons. Gretzky, whose record-setting goal was his 37th this season, has averaged 55 goals over 14 NHL seasons. He broke Howe’s record in his 1,117th game; Howe needed 1,767 to score his 801.

For his career, Gretzky has averaged 2.19 points per game; Howe averaged 1.05 per game and finished with 1,850 NHL points. If he had averaged as many points per game as Gretzky, he would have collected 3,940 points. Among the NHL’s top 100 point leaders, only Mario Lemieux comes close to Gretzky’s wizardry. Lemieux has averaged 2.03 points per game, but his career is being threatened by back problems. No other player in the top 100 has averaged as many as 1.5 points per game.

The sellout crowd of 16,005, which moments earlier saluted Oscar winner Tom Hanks with a standing ovation at his Forum seat, gave Gretzky an even louder cheer. This crowd knows class.

“Six years ago when I came to L.A., they said California wasn’t a great hockey area,” Gretzky said during the ceremony that commemorated his goal. “Mr. (Bruce) McNall brought me down here six years ago, and we showed North America that they were wrong. . . . To the fans of L.A., I’ve loved playing here for six years and I’d love to play another six years.”

Gretzky doesn’t have a mean streak like Howe, who probably would have checked his grandmother into the cheap seats if she stood between him and the net. He didn’t revolutionize the concept of how to play a position, as Bobby Orr did for defensemen. He didn’t have the slap shot that Bobby Hull made famous. He’s not tall enough to have the regal air of Jean Beliveau. He didn’t invent the goalie mask or the curved stick.

His game isn’t rink-length rushes, like Paul Coffey, or the pure speed up the wing of Mike Gartner. It isn’t breakaways or shots from the point or one-handing a shot with two defenders on his back, as Lemieux can do with the reach afforded by his 6-foot-4 frame.

What he did was bring to hockey a vision and creativity never seen before.

Gretzky’s game is built on quickness, not flat-out speed. It’s the ability to know where the puck is going to be, to dart there, startle a defender and force a turnover with a flick of his stick.

His game is seeing everything, analyzing it and acting a split-second too quickly for opponents to react. By the time they realize he has set up behind the net, he has already released a pass to a teammate who was left open for a shot. That’s why that bit of ice behind the opposition’s net has become his favorite spot, his command post, because from there he can see everyone coming at him and recognize where his best play will be.

His record-breaking goal was only a wrist shot, like hundreds he has scored, but it was the completion of a clever passing sequence with Luc Robitaille and Marty McSorley. Robitaille left a drop pass for Gretzky, who passed to McSorley on the right side. McSorley passed back to Gretzky, who quickly put the puck in the net.

Nothing flashy, just subtle, smart and well executed.

Is he greater than Howe? Purists will argue Howe was superior because he set his records against tougher competition, in the days of the six-team NHL and before over-expansion diluted talent. But he didn’t have to endure an 84-game schedule or the draining coast-to-coast travel Gretzky faces. There’s no real answer, merely the fun of arguing and the joy of appreciating the unique gifts each has brought to the game.

Greatest Hits

By surpassing Gordie Howe’s record of 801 career goals, Wayne Gretzky claimed the last remaining major NHL record that he did not already own. Here’s a look at the standards that Gretzky is establishing

BREAKDOWN

Goals: 802

Even-strength: 505

Power-play: 179

Shorthanded: 72

Empty-net: 46

Game-winning goals: 78

Game-tying goals: 20

2 goals: 135

3 goals: 30

4 goals: 13

5 goals: 4

Unassisted: 70

ALL-TIME GOALS

Player Games Goals Wayne Gretzky 1,117 802 Gordie Howe 1,767 801 Marcel Dionne 1,348 731 Phil Esposito 1,282 717 Mike Gartner 1,161 611 Bobby Hull 1,063 610 Mario Lemieux 591 487 Brett Hull 529 404

SEASON

Most assists: 163 (1985-86)

Most goals: 92 (1981-82)

Most points: 215 (1985-86)

Most goals including playoffs: 100 (1983-84)

Most assists including playoffs: 174 (1985-86)

Most points including playoffs: 255 (1984-85)

Longest point-scoring streak: 51 games