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Wayne Gretzky has
been expected to be a savior his entire
life.
At the age of 14, Gretzky
was expected to revolutionize the game
of hockey, saving it from the brutes
and thugs that were overrunning it.
He did.
In 1988 he was traded
from Edmonton to Los Angeles for the
purpose of saving the sport in the second
largest market in the United States
and making hockey hip in Corporate America.
He did.
After he retired, Gretzky
was expected to save Canadian national
hockey by bringing home the country’s
first gold medal in half a century.
He did.
Now, Gretzky is charged
with helping to revitalize interest
in a the National Hockey League, which
in 2005 became the first major North
American professional sport to have
a season cancelled due to labor strife.
Gretzky is the new head coach of the
Phoenix Coyotes, and he will be serving
the dual role of goodwill ambassador
and bench jockey as hockey tries to
reestablish itself in the U.S.
The Great One lost his
managerial debut on Wednesday night,
dropping a 3-2 decision to the Vancouver
Canucks. The Coyotes are at 22/1 odds
to win the Stanley Cup this season and
haven’t made the playoffs since
2002. They finished 13th in the Western
Conference in 2003-04.
Gretzky, a nine-time league MVP who
turned the NHL record book into his
own personal memoirs, said that his
primary motivation for returning to
the ice was simple. He missed the rush.
“When you’re
playing, there’s nothing like
it,” Gretzky said to the The Associated
Press. “You know you can go out
there and affect the outcome of the
game each and every night. Now the effect
I can have on the game is very different,
but the passion I have to help this
team win is still the same I had as
a player.”
While this is the 44-year-old
Gretzky’s first coaching gig,
he’s gained plenty of administrative
and managerial experience since he left
the ice. He served as the Executive
Director of Canadian Men’s Hockey,
and was the architect of the 2002 gold
medal-winning national team in Salt
Lake City. In 2000 he became Phoenix’s
Alternate Governor and Managing Partner
after purchasing a 17 percent stake
in the team, and in 2001 he was named
Managing Director.
But now he’s as
close to the ice as he’s been
since he hung up his skates in 1999.
He’s hoping that his place on
the bench will help him impart the knowledge
that he acquired through years of competing
and dominating the sport he helped define.
''There's no one more
competitive," said Brett Hull,
the league’s third all-time leading
scorer and new Phoenix forward. ''He's
the ultimate champion and competitor.
He's going to have to really fight that
when things don't go as great as he
wants them to. I think it's going to
help us players to have that.”
Gretzky brings instant
credibility and interest to the Phoenix
organization. He’s essentially
the Canadian Michael Jordan (minus the
gambling, womanizing and corporate whoring)
and his presence will generate a buzz
and excitement in every hockey venue
with our neighbors to the North. Both
his knowledge of the game and communication
skills are unquestioned, and they will
make up for any lack of experience that
he has as a tactician. Also, he’ll
be coming back to teach a game that
more closely resembles the free-wheeling,
high-scoring sport that he dominated
in the 80’s.
However, detractors feel
as if The Great One’s return is
simply a well-timed marketing ploy by
Phoenix management. As the owner of
nearly one-fifth of the franchise, there’s
no doubt that Gretzky wants to protect
his investment. There is a general apathy
towards hockey in this country and a
sense of disillusionment towards it
in Canada. Even the return of hockey’s
all-time greatest player can’t
change that overnight.
Regardless, it’s
good to have Wayne back in the game.
He’s as good a guy as there is
in any sport, and his presence can be
nothing but positive for the next generation
of players and fans. If the NHL is going
to bridge the gap between the pre- and
post-lockout eras it’s going to
take the effort, sacrifice and teamwork
of everyone involved. For the guy who
tallied more assists than any other
player in history, that shouldn’t
be a problem.
Questions or comments
for Robert? E-mail robert@docsports.com.
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