99

by Al Strachan

  And if they had prepared such a list, perhaps it might have been wise to let the participants in on it. In a subsequent quiet moment, players confirmed that the bench was in full-scale panic mode after overtime ended. None of the players knew who was going to do the shooting, much less the tactics or the order in which they would shoot.

  After the game, Crawford said, “When the ice is heavy like it is after thirty minutes of play on the same sheet, you’ve got to have some guys who not only have the ability to pick the corners and then make the clean shot, but also have the strength to get through the shot.”

  Gretzky wouldn’t?

  “We won’t second-guess that decision,” growled Crawford. “If you people want to, that’s obviously your prerogative.”

  Except it wasn’t second-guessing. At the moment the lineup was announced, there was no shortage of negative reaction in the press box—and, for that matter, probably throughout the hockey world. But after a little thought, the situation started to become clear. The management group had done everything it could to minimize Gretzky’s impact. Why would they stop when it came time for a shootout?

  They were determined that the reins of leadership be handed over to Lindros, even though he had never won a single Stanley Cup—or, for that matter, a scoring title. Even before the team was picked, the management floated stories that Gretzky might not be chosen. But his NHL play was so good they had to select him, even though they didn’t want to.

  They wouldn’t give him the C or even an A. They tried to keep him out of the opening press conference. So when the time came to pick the shootout participants, they certainly weren’t going to risk the humiliation of having Gretzky be the hero after all the things they had done to indicate that he was just another player. They left him off the list.

  They really showed him. They won the battle. But they lost the war.

  The loss was so demoralizing that Canada didn’t even beat Finland in the bronze-medal game. That’s usually the Canadian way. They go into these competitions expecting gold. Once that possibility ends, the intensity level drops.

  A shoddy goal Roy allowed seventeen seconds into the third period stood up as the winner in the 3–2 game.

  “We’re tremendously upset that we didn’t win,” Gretzky said. “We’d like to have everything start all over again. I like our team. We really played hard. The bottom line was we didn’t win.

  “I don’t care what level you’re playing at, whether you’re at youth hockey or the National Hockey League or here, especially the elite players, all they have to think about is first place. Nobody ever thinks about second, third, or fourth. We came here to get a gold medal and we didn’t get the job done.”

  For Canadian fans, the poor Olympic result was made worse by the fact that everyone knew it would be the last time they would see Wayne Gretzky in a Team Canada uniform.

  For years, he had worn the jersey proudly. He had provided some of the country’s greatest international hockey moments and he had been on hand for some of its worst.

  The fourth-place finish in the Olympics wasn’t good, but it wasn’t one of those terrible moments. The 8–1 loss in the final game of the 1981 Canada Cup certainly was, and the loss to the U.S. in the deciding game of the World Cup final was no treat, either.

  But Gretzky always was there when asked, in the Canada Cups, the World Cup, and even in the world championships—which most National Hockey League players put on a par with the bubonic plague.

  “I just think that whatever sport you’re in, whatever you do, if you can play for your country, it’s a privilege,” Gretzky said after the Olympics. “At sixteen, I played for Team Canada in the world junior tournament, and I felt the same way playing on this team as I did on that team. It was a great thrill, and I was very proud to be a part of it.

  “Every time you put on a Canadian uniform and play for Team Canada, anything but gold is not acceptable. That’s a pressure and a fact that our team lives with, that maybe no other country has. When you win, the roses are tremendous. When you lose, you have to stand up and take your lumps. And we’re taking our lumps.”

  More of the lumps were being taken by the management team, and especially Crawford, after the shootout debacle. But Gretzky, in typical fashion, refused to cast aspersions.

  “That’s unfair to the guys,” he said. “I think we probably could have had twenty guys out there, and nobody would have scored. I think the only thing that hurt us was Joey Sakic’s injury. Joey would definitely have been one of the shooters. There were a lot of guys that it could have been. If one of the guys would have scored, what a great decision. I really don’t believe I would have made any difference.”

  But he sat on the bench long after the loss, staring into the distance, stunned by the defeat.

  “I don’t think there’s any question that was one of the worst losses of my whole career, just because I felt that the team played hard and did a lot of great things and lost in a shootout,” he said. “To say the least, we’re devastated.

  “We haven’t gone through that feeling before. We’ve never experienced that as players before. You play a Game Seven, you go into overtime. You keep going. This was a whole different feeling. We were in shock when we lost. We didn’t know what happened. It was a tough loss for us to swallow. You keep it forever.”

  It took a year to get to the bottom of what really happened during the events that led up to the infamous shootout decision. Crawford said it was a group decision. Clarke said it was a coaching decision, not his. “I felt against the Czechs that if we were going to win it, it was going to be because of Gretzky,” Clarke said. “He was the one guy who kept giving us chances with the puck.”

  The matter would not go away. In the hockey community, it was a burning question: Why had Gretzky not been in the shootout?

  Again and again, once anonymity was promised, the name of assistant coach Andy Murray surfaced. Three direct Olympic team sources and other indirect sources said that Murray told the others on the coaching staff that Gretzky had asked to be excluded from the shootout.

  Gretzky categorically denied making any such request. “I don’t have any bad feelings about not being picked,” he told me in a private conversation. “When I was sitting on the bench, I was pulling for all the other guys. But I never, ever turned down a chance to shoot. That’s one hundred per cent not true. To say that I turned down a chance is definitely wrong.”

  What is not wrong is that there was total confusion within the workings of the team. The whole process was a mix-up—probably more innocent than malevolent, and not unusual in everyday affairs, but something that shouldn’t happen in such circumstances.

  With so many fingers pointing at Murray, he appeared to be the only one who could shed some light on the matter. He said that, about three days before the game against the Czechs, he and Gretzky were having a lighthearted chat in the dressing room. He jokingly said to Gretzky, “Are you ready for the shootout?”

  Gretzky’s response was typically modest: “There are better guys than me.”

  When the coaching staff was putting together the list of shooters, Gretzky was not on Crawford’s original list—presumably for the reasons already mentioned—but at that point, the list was still subject to revision. When the possibility of inserting Gretzky was raised, Murray related their conversation of three days earlier.

  Gretzky’s remark apparently was interpreted as a request to be left off the list, and, as a result, he was not included.

  Murray vehemently denied the widespread belief within the hockey community that he insisted Gretzky be excluded.

  “I have far too much respect for Wayne to do that,” he said. “The ultimate decision was Crawford’s, and he simply never bothered to ask Gretzky.”

  Prior to the Olympics, Clarke and Gretzky had interacted in only the most minimal way. They were involved in the same league and each knew of the other, but their careers had never directly overlapped. They had never been involved with the
same team.

  But after the Canadians staggered home without so much as a medal, Clarke, never a man known for sugar-coating a situation, was aware of two things: one, he should not be involved in the next Team Canada, the entry in the Salt Lake City 2002 Olympics; two, Gretzky should.

  “When you lose like we did, I don’t think that I should get another crack at it,” he said. “I really don’t. I think when you lose like that, someone else should come in as a manager.”

  He was being a bit too hard on himself. Others were involved, and Sather, the architect of the previous national team, saw that as the problem. “You can’t do a job like that by committee,” he said.

  Clarke not only headed a managerial troika, but to make matters worse, there was considerable involvement—some would say meddling—from Canadian Hockey. Bob Nicholson played a large role in the proceedings, and the team followed a game plan provided by Andy Murray, who had been appointed by Canadian Hockey. To put it simply, that plan was a disaster. The Canadian players did their best without complaint, but they didn’t like that game plan, and ultimately, it became clear that it didn’t work.

  “You can look back and say if we’d had a healthy Paul Kariya and Joe Sakic, we might have won,” Clarke said. “But we didn’t lose a game, we lost a shootout.”

  Theoren Fleury put it another way. “Perhaps next time, they can set up a Scrabble board at centre ice and we’ll play Scrabble to see who wins.”

  “The mentality of the Canadian players probably put us at a little bit of a disadvantage against the Finns,” Clarke conceded, “because a bronze medal doesn’t mean too much to Canadians in hockey. I think that it should, and that next turn around, maybe the team going in will realize that just getting a medal at the Olympics is something special.”

  That would be one lesson. But there were others, and Clarke rhymed them off.

  “You have to keep better control of the team when you’re at the event,” he said. “There were families and friends and agents and NHL sponsors and everybody. I think when the game’s over, you should take the players and wives and go somewhere and give them a couple of hours together.

  “I think also, knowing that a shootout is part of it, we should have practised it. You should identify the guys who could end up in that position and have a plan.

  “Each guy who went in on Dominik Hasek did exactly the same thing. He went right down the middle of the ice. We should have said, ‘Maybe we should send one guy down the right side, one down the left. Let’s see if we can’t make him think a little bit.’

  “Again, it’s hindsight, but I think for next time, there should be a lot more time spent on that kind of planning.”

  With Clarke never having had any firsthand contact with Gretzky, he had been less aware than some of his potential contributions. But he was won over.

  When I asked him about favouring Lindros at Gretzky’s expense, he said, “I think you’re reading that wrong. It probably turned out looking like that, but it was not intended that way. It was our intent to not put the responsibility of the whole team on Wayne Gretzky again.

  “Gretzky is a guy you can count on regardless of whether he’s the captain or not. You know what he’s going to give you. You know what he’s going to do for you. You know how he’s going to conduct himself.

  “We felt he had carried so much for so long that some of the other guys—by being put in the position of captain or assistant captain or spokesman or whatever—would rise. They’re going to be the guys who have to carry us the next time.”

  It wasn’t just Gretzky’s on-ice performance that impressed Clarke; it was his total involvement. On most days, for instance, Gretzky would walk from the Olympic Village to the rink, stopping to chat with admirers and well-wishers on the way. By the end of the Olympics, he had regulars who waited for him to come by. I suggested that it was the first time in years that he had been able to wander freely along urban streets.

  “I wouldn’t say that,” he said with a laugh. “But I don’t mind it. I’m used to it. It’s part of my life, but it’s not just me. Everybody gets asked for a picture or an autograph.”

  Living in the athletes’ village had also been a pleasant experience. “I think our whole team really enjoyed it,” he said. “All our guys rallied around the whole Olympic team—the speed skaters, the skiers, everybody. They seemed surprised that our guys are so friendly and outgoing, but I don’t think that should be a big surprise to anyone who knows hockey players.”

  There was no doubt that Clarke had become a convert. “I think we should go out of our way to make sure that a player like Gretzky—and his wife—should be part of our next management or coaching group,” he said. “With their knowledge and their class, they’re such a strong representation of Canadian hockey. What they have to offer is so much. I think they have to be either a part of the management or part of the coaching team—in a serious role. I’m not talking token. Maybe Gretzky should be the manager or the head coach—depending on what he’s doing at the time, because we’re talking three years down the road.”

  Clarke was so moved by Gretzky’s contributions that he couldn’t let the matter rest.

  “I wrote him and his wife a personal letter,” he said, “because I think it is important for young players in hockey to see how a guy like that, who is the best player that hockey ever has had, and his wife, conduct themselves with decency and humility.

  “To me, that’s what’s so important to Canadian hockey: that you can be as great as that and conduct your personal life with your wife and kids properly and be so humble about what you’ve done. To me, that was so impressive.

  “I hadn’t really spent a lot of time with him. I had never met his wife before. It was really wonderful.”

  The author, with Number 99 (and some of his dogs) at his California home, five months after he retired.

  (Photographic Credit loi2.1)

  Mike Keenan, head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, was selected to coach Team Canada in 1987.

  (Photographic Credit loi2.2)

  The celebration after Number 99 set up Mario Lemieux for the game-winning goal in the 1987 Canada Cup final game against the Soviets. The other Canadian player is Larry Murphy, who provided a decoy on the play. Gretzky joked that his father, who was in the stands, had a better chance than Murphy of getting the pass.

  (Photographic Credit loi2.2a)

  Gretzky married Janet Jones in Edmonton on July 16, 1988. A crowd of thousands cheered on the couple outside of St. Joseph’s Basilica.

  (Photographic Credit loi2.3)

  Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall during the press conference on August 9, 1988, when Gretzky was traded to the Los Angeles Kings.

  (Photographic Credit loi2.3a)

  Victorious: celebrating a hat trick in a 1993 playoff game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

  (Photographic Credit loi2.4)

  Gretzky’s idol had always been Gordie Howe, the man known as “Mr. Hockey.” A year after arriving in L.A., Gretzky broke Howe’s all-time scoring record. Seen here together after filming a commercial in Culver City. “I played with him and it was a treat,” said Howe afterwards. “Those passes come over nice and flat, no wobble, just the right speed.”

  (Photographic Credit loi2.4a)

  “You can’t write about this yet, Strach,” Gretzky said, “but we’re going to make a European tour and I want to ask a bunch of guys to come along.” Gretzky’s goodwill tour throughout Scandinavia during the 1994 NHL lockout was a huge success. Elite players such as Mark Messier, Steve Yzerman, and Jari Kurri played for the Ninety-nines, and proved that there was enormous interest abroad in hockey. The tour was an overwhelming success and fulfilled its main purpose: to take the game to those who love it.

  (Photographic Credit loi2.5)

  Gretzky, playing for St. Louis, in his first game against the L.A. Kings.

  Gretzky was thrilled to play for his country in the Nagano Olympics. Aware that he wouldn’t be allowed to make us
e of the Olympics logo on his stick, he had a design burned into the stick’s butt end that had three interlocking rings and a rounded WG instead of the other two rings. To prevent counterfeits, each stick was numbered.

  (Photographic Credit loi2.6)

  Gretzky with his father, Walter, his main inspiration, in a pre-retirement ceremony in 1999.

  (Photographic Credit loi2.7)

  Retiring from the New York Rangers – and hockey – before a crowd of grateful fans.

  (Photographic Credit loi2.7a)

  Canadian royalty and British royalty: Queen Elizabeth II prepares to receive the ceremonial puck prior to the Canucks–Sharks game in Vancouver during her royal visit in 2002.

  (Photographic Credit loi2.8)

  Always a proud ambassador of Canada, Gretzky carried the Olympic torch during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games.

  (Photographic Credit loi2.8a)

  Gretzky and assistant coach Ulf Samuelsson forcefully make their case to the officials during a Phoenix Coyotes game in 2008.

  (Photographic Credit loi2.8b)

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Wayne Gretzky was always acutely aware of the location of all the other players on the ice. This not only made him a more effective player, it also made him a healthier player because he rarely took any serious hits.

  For his first eight seasons in the NHL, he missed an average of one game a year, even though he was out for a six-game stretch right after he set the consecutive-game scoring mark of fifty-one.

  Whether it was through good fortune or skill, Gretzky was able to avoid the debilitating knee injuries that negatively impacted the careers of many great athletes. Bobby Orr is hockey’s best example, but Pavel Bure is also on the list.