That’s the hardest part of this whole process. The best part is picking the players and the worst part is telling basically five players they are not going to play tonight.
WAYNE GRETZKYKids don’t fight in minor hockey anymore. There’s very few fights in junior and college hockey. So growing up, all these guys are not fighting.
More Wayne Gretzky Quotes
-
-
The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
Not doing it is certainly the best way to not getting it.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
It doesn’t matter what I think. It doesn’t matter what other people think. You have to get on the ice and participate and play and the best team wins.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
When I played in a 21-team league, there were six or seven goalies who were just average, and the equipment and pads were smaller. I came in the right era. I played for the right team. It was all speed, and creativity and imagination.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
Hockey is a unique sport in the sense that you need each and every guy helping each other and pulling in the same direction to be successful.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
By no means could I play at the level of these kids who play in the NHL now but as 50-year-olds go, I feel really good and I feel blessed that I’m still healthy.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
What you want to do with your best players is, it doesn’t matter how many goals and assists they get, but when they get goals and assists. The best players get them at the most important times, and that’s when we need those guys to come through.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
It really doesn’t matter or concern me what people are saying or who thinks who is the favorite. The bottom line is you have to play.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
And people who know me would tell you that away from hockey I’m really not that competitive.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
I love everything about hockey.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
When I broke into professional hockey at 17 I was told that I was too small and too slow and I wouldn’t make the NHL. Now it’s kind of flip-flopped and the sense is I can’t be a good coach because I was a great athlete.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
I really wanted to write a book [99: Stories of the Game] on the tradition and history of the league, where kids can pick it up and read it and learn things and say, “Geez, I didn’t know that. That’s pretty cool.”
WAYNE GRETZKY -
A lot of times, I can turn and pass without even looking.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
I miss all the shots I don’t take.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
I don’t like my hockey sticks touching other sticks, and I don’t like them crossing one another, and I kind of have them hidden in the corner. I put baby powder on the ends. I think it’s essentially a matter of taking care of what takes care of you.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
Thankfully, in my youth I had the best financial advisor a son could ask for: my dad Walter. When I got that first signing bonus in 1978, Dad took my cheque, announced, ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ and bought an annuity with it.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
As a player, you have one responsibility, to focus yourself and be ready for the game. As a coach, your responsibility is to get 20 guys ready and have them all on the same page. If you can’t get every guy ready every night, you’re going to struggle.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
There’s no perfect coach in the world. Coaches are human, too. Mistakes are made. But, fundamentally, if you’re sound, you eliminate as many mistakes as possible.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
I can remember hockey. It was my life, my passion. It’s what I love the most.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
What you want to do with your best players is, it doesn’t matter how many goals and assists they get, but when they get goals and assists. The best players get them at the most important times, and that’s when we need those guys to come through.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
The biggest difference between L.A. and Edmonton was that instead of people looking at me I was looking at them.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
The Power of WHO provides great lessons about how to succeed in business and in life. If you surround yourself with quality people and great friends, the sky’s the limit.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
I have absolutely no complaints about my life. But people think I got handed everything, all this kind of fell in my lap, that I was just God-gifted with all this talent. I wanted people to realize it’s a lot tougher than just waking up one day and you’re in the NHL.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
It’s easier to lose than to win.
WAYNE GRETZKY -
I grew up such a fan. It was my life. Everything I did was hockey related and everything I have is because of hockey and the NHL.
WAYNE GRETZKY