Wayne Gretzky: On the Ice With... (8 page)

It was a Game Seven that lived up to its advance promotion. From the outset the Flyers’ tight-checking style frustrated the
speedy Edmonton forwards. Trailing 1–0 halfway through the second period, the Oilers managed to draw even, then pull ahead
when left wing Esa Tikkanen knocked the puck away from a Flyer defenseman onto the waiting stick of Wayne Gretzky. Wayne looked
up, found Jari Kurri behind the net, and passed. Kurri buried the puck and the Oilers led, 2–1.

The Oilers knew that a one-goal lead didn’t mean a certain victory. They played tough defense throughout the third period,
limiting Philadelphia to a mere two shots on goal. But it wasn’t until Glenn Anderson plugged in a third goal with less than
two and a half minutes to go that the Edmonton fans really began to celebrate.

When the buzzer sounded, the roar from the crowd was deafening. The Cup was back where everybody thought it would stay for
a long time: Edmonton.

Amid the postgame euphoria, Captain Gretzky reflected.

“It was the hardest Cup we have won,” he said. “I thought we played seven good games of hockey. This was by far the biggest
game I’ve ever played. It could have been a great summer or the longest summer of my life.”

To put the icing on the cake, Wayne added his eighth straight Hart Trophy (MVP) and seventh consecutive Art Ross Trophy (scoring
champion). All the individual honors aside, the most important fact for Wayne was that he had brought the Oilers
back to the top. His 34 points (5 goals, 29 assists) led all playoff scorers for the fifth time in six years.

But the hockey season wasn’t over yet. The challenge of the Canada Cup was still ahead. For Wayne, this tournament would prove
to be a turning point.

Though the 1986–87 season ended in triumph and glory for the Oilers, it had been a grueling one for Number 99. He had been
playing competitive hockey for twenty years with barely a break. Physically and mentally exhausted, the twenty-six-year-old
actually contemplated retirement.

The Canada Cup gave Wayne an opportunity to remember why he had been drawn to hockey in the first place. He was teamed up
with a younger player who was emerging as the heir apparent to his throne: Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Playing
with “Super Mario” proved to be just the revitalizing experience Wayne needed.

The 1987 Canada Cup was one of the best showcases of international hockey talent ever held. Teams from the United States,
Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Canada competed in front of a worldwide audience.

In the end, co-favorites Canada and Russia matched up for the finals. Those watching the best-of-three series saw some of
the greatest hockey ever played. And at the center of it all was hockey’s Great One, Wayne Gretzky.

The opening game of the final was played on September 11 at the historic Montreal Forum. The crowd was treated to a terrific,
end-to-end fast-paced match. The Russians squandered a 4–1 lead, allowing Canada to plug in 3 goals to tie the game. Wayne
Gretzky broke a 4–4 tie with less than three minutes left to play. But the Russians fought back with a goal of their own and
forced the game into overtime. Five minutes into the overtime, Russian left wing Alexander Semak scored, stunning the Canadians
and their fans. Russia was now up a game in the best-of-three series.

Moving to Hamilton, Ontario, for Game Two, Team Canada rebounded with an exhilarating 6–5 victory in double overtime. The
winning goal was made by Mario Lemieux, on an assist from Wayne Gretzky. But the tournament wasn’t over yet.

The third and deciding match was also played in Hamilton. It was a hockey masterpiece.

The Russians jumped out quickly to a 3–0 lead. Spurred on by their hometown fans at Hamilton’s Copps Coliseum, Team Canada
scratched and clawed their way back with 2 goals. Then Wayne Gretzky tied it up on a key power play. From his favorite position
behind the net, he waited for defenseman Larry Murphy to move in off the point. As Murphy hit the open area, Wayne fed him
the puck for a quick wrist shot that tied the game.

The duo would also work together to plug in the game-winning goal. With the game tied at 5–5, Wayne led a three-on-one break
with Mario Lemieux and Larry Murphy. The crowd roared as the Great One used Murphy as a decoy, then sent a perfect drop pass
to Super Mario for a wicked shot. With a decisive flick of his stick, Mario sent the puck shooting past goalie Sergei Mylinkov
into the net.

As the five-feet-eleven-inch Gretzky leaped jubilantly into the arms of the imposing six-feet-four-inch Lemieux, cameras whirred
and flashbulbs popped. The dynamic duo had brought hockey glory to all of Canada as well as to themselves. For the third straight
time, Wayne led the tournament in
scoring with 3 goals and 18 assists for 21 points. He had assisted on all four of Mario’s goals in the final series; the effort
earned him Canada Cup MVP honors for the first time.

Wayne called the victory his “greatest game ever.” But the celebration would be short-lived. In less than a month, Wayne and
the Oilers were preparing for their Stanley Cup defense.

Things began to change in Edmonton prior to the 1987–88 season. The Oilers owner, Peter Pocklington, was suffering financial
troubles.

The Edmonton Oilers of the 1980s were similar to the National Football League’s Green Bay Packers in the 1960s: a small-town
team that was extremely successful, beloved by their hometown fans. The major difference was that the Packers were, and have
remained, city owned. Although Edmonton was no less proud of Wayne Gretzky and the Stanley Cup champion Oilers, financial
problems for owner Peter Pocklington ultimately meant financial problems for the Oilers. Though his team had been wildly successful,
in the end he simply couldn’t afford to keep the star players together.

The first to go was Paul Coffey, traded to
Pittsburgh. Then a contract problem sent goalie Andy Moog, half of the Oilers’ impenetrable tandem of netminders, to the Canadian
national team. Finally, the highly skilled defenseman Reijo Ruotsalainen accepted a better offer from his native Finland.

It was a difficult year for Wayne and the remaining members of the team. For the first time, tension had also developed between
Glenn Sather and Captain Wayne Gretzky regarding a new contract. The overall atmosphere was not pleasant.

But despite all the problems surrounding the team off the ice, on the ice the Oilers remained formidable. Kevin Lowe stepped
into Paul Coffey’s place and had his best season. Left wing Craig Simpson, acquired in the Coffey trade from Pittsburgh, scored
43 goals. Goalie Grant Fuhr’s 40 wins and 4 shutouts led the NHL and earned him a place on the All-Star team as well as his
first Vezina Trophy.

The Oilers finished the season with the league’s third-best record with 44 wins, 25 losses, and 11 ties. Their 99 points placed
them 6 points behind Calgary in the Smythe Division, ending their six-year reign as division champions.

For Wayne personally, it was a year of both highs and lows. On the positive side Wayne got his 1,000th career assist in November,
becoming only the second player to reach that milestone. Then on March 1, 1988, he broke Gordie Howe’s assist record with
number 1,050 on a goal by Jari Kurri. It had taken him just 687 games to become the all-time leader. His boyhood idol Howe
had needed 1,086 games.

On the downside, Wayne suffered his first significant injury. In a game with Philadelphia, he was sandwich-checked by two
Flyer defenders and tore the cartilage in his knee. Although he didn’t need surgery, he was sidelined for sixteen games, exactly
one-fifth of the schedule. While it proved a good chance to rest his exhausted body at the close of the regular season, he
watched Mario Lemieux walk off with first place in points and goals, the Art Ross MVP award, and the coveted first-team center
spot on the All-Stars.

Amazingly enough, however, Lemieux’s Penguins were not eligible for the Stanley Cup playoffs. Instead, the Oilers met the
Winnipeg Jets in the Smythe Division Conference. They defeated them easily, 4 games to 1, and advanced to the semifinals.
There they found their old rivals, the Calgary Flames, waiting.

The Oilers skated to two victories on the Calgary home ice. Wayne scored a key breakaway goal in the first game, then blasted
a shorthanded overtime shot in the second. They returned to Edmonton. Two games later, the Flames were done. The Oilers chalked
up a 4-game sweep.

Next up was the Detroit Red Wings. Five games later, Edmonton had advanced to the Stanley Cup finals for the fifth time in
six years.

This year, the Oilers faced a new challenger: the Boston Bruins. The Bruins had competed often in the pre-Cup conferences,
but had always been defeated before reaching the finals. This year, they went all the way.

Led by their great defenseman, Ray Bourque, power forward Cam Neely, and netminder Reggie Lemelin, the Bruins came into the
finals on a roll. But they proved to be no match for the defending Cup champions.

Like the New York Islanders years before, the Oilers drew on their playoff toughness and experience. They swept the first
three games, two before
their home crowd in Edmonton and the third in Boston. Strange as it may seem, the controversies of the 1987–88 season left
the players actually looking forward to winning the Cup in Boston. But a power outage at the aging Boston Garden shifted Game
Four back to Edmonton’s Northlands Coliseum.

At first, it was a tight game. Then, with the score tied at 2–2, the Oilers took control with one of their classic offensive
explosions, striking 3 unanswered goals on former Edmonton goalie Andy Moog. The game ended with a 6–3 victory.

Gretzky’s 12 goals, 31 assists, and outstanding leadership earned him his second Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP.

Amid another rousing postgame celebration Wayne called everyone together for a team picture. That team included many new players,
a fact that led Captain Gretzky to comment, “What’s great now is seeing the guys’ faces who haven’t won it before.”

The players may have changed but the results were the same. Captain Wayne Gretzky and his Stanley Cup champion Oilers had
proved again to be the most talented team in the NHL. They were
a close-knit group of team members and their families; the parents of many players became lifelong friends. Playing in a small
city, the team had developed a special bond with their legion of fans. As Wayne said that night, “Tonight we stand here with
four Cups in five years and it just gets better every year.”

All that was about to change.

The aftermath of the Oilers’ 1988 Stanley Cup championship was an emotional roller coaster for hockey’s greatest player.

On July 16, 1988, he married Janet Jones, a beautiful blond American actress. Wayne had met Janet some seven years earlier
while taping a television show. The wedding at St. Joseph’s Cathedral Basilica in Edmonton was billed by the media as “Canada’s
Royal Wedding,” referring to the 1981 British royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana.

The Edmonton fire department, decked out in dress reds, lined the steps leading into the church. There were seven hundred
invited guests. A crowd of ten thousand gathered outside the church for a glimpse of the couple. Television personality Alan
Thicke served as master of ceremonies for the lavish reception. Then Wayne and his new bride were off to Los Angeles for their
honeymoon.

Wayne couldn’t have been happier. But all was not well.

A few hours after the Oilers had won the Cup, Wayne’s father, Walt, heard rumors that Wayne might be traded. As stunning as
it sounded, Wayne had to believe deep down that this could happen. Peter Pocklington’s other business ventures continued to
slide. He needed cash if he was going to keep the Oilers. Unloading Wayne’s hefty personal services contract would be a significant
saving.

There were four teams in the running for Wayne: the Detroit Red Wings, the New York Rangers, the Vancouver Canucks, and the
Los Angeles Kings. While on honeymoon with Janet, Wayne got a call from Bruce McNall, the owner of the Los Angeles Kings.

Wayne and Bruce got along well, but Wayne was not fully sold on the Kings. Los Angeles had been a poor team for a number of
years and Wayne had to consider what it would mean to be thrust into the
role of “franchise savior.” In the end, he decided to accept it as a new challenge.

A basic deal was offered. In exchange for Wayne and forwards Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelnyski, the Oilers would receive
young forwards Jimmy Carsen and Martin Gelinas from the Kings, along with three future number one draft choices and $15 million.
It was an offer Pocklington couldn’t refuse.

The trade was announced on August 9, 1988. A tearful Wayne Gretzky faced his Edmonton fans and spoke from the heart to the
teammates, coaches, and other Oiler associates he had grown up with over the past nine years.

The shock waves were felt across the NHL. The
Edmonton Journal
ran its biggest headline since World War II ended: “Gretzky Gone.” The
Edmonton Sun
listed stories on practically every page. Many in Canada cried that their national treasure had been stolen by the Americans,
in particular by owner McNall — the horse owner and collector of rare art, coins, and baseball cards now had hockey’s greatest
player as well.

Wayne experienced culture shock in moving to
L.A. After years of sharing apartments with teammates like Kevin Lowe, he was married and living in a mansion in suburban
Encino. His new home included six bedrooms, a swimming pool, and servants. But once he got used to his surroundings, he found
the city had many advantages. For one, he was no longer the only celebrity in town. He could get lost among the hordes of
stars that populated Los Angeles. He could socialize with close friends and fellow Canadians Alan Thicke, Michael J. Fox,
and John Candy without constantly being mobbed.