When you’re playing an exhibition, you’re kind of letting everyone get an opportunity.
WAYNE GRETZKYMy best friend had a hockey scholarship at Ohio State, so I would get a couple of pairs at the beginning of the season and send them down to him. They practised two hours a day. He’d skate in them for three weeks then ship them back.
More Wayne Gretzky Quotes
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He brings something special. I don’t know what it is, but if you ask him, you couldn’t understand his answer.
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Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.
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Growing up, I was always the small guy.
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I couldn’t beat people with my strength; I don’t have a hard shot; I’m not the quickest skater in the league. My eyes and my mind have to do most of the work.
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We played in an era where you were taught to hate your opponent. But life changes. I raise my kids differently than my mom and dad raised their kids.
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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.
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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.
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I’m probably the only guy in hockey who can win a scoring title and everybody is saying I had a bad year. I don’t worry about it.
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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.”
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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.
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Everything I did in hockey, I worked for.
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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.
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Only one thing is ever guaranteed, that is that you will definitely not achieve the goal if you don’t take the shot.
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I love everything about hockey.
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Not doing it is certainly the best way to not getting it.
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The biggest difference between L.A. and Edmonton was that instead of people looking at me I was looking at them.
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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.
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I miss all the shots I don’t take.
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We’re in a tough situation because of teenage children, and then we have a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old, so my family and my responsibilities is sort of a juggle.
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I love everything about hockey.
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Sometimes people ask, ‘Are hockey fights real?’ I say, ‘If they weren’t, I’d get in more of them.
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When people come up to me and say, “I was at your Game 7 in the playoffs in Toronto,” or, “I saw your first goal in the NHL,” that triggers memories. But I don’t sit around my kitchen table and tell my kids, “You know, one year I got 92 goals.”
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I think that from the time you start playing sports as a child you see that your responsibility to your team is to play the best that you can play as an individual. And yet, not take anything away from being part of a team.
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Eight days ago, we were the toast of the town. Eight days later we’re Thanksgiving turkeys.
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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.
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It’s easier to lose than to win.
WAYNE GRETZKY