The Great One

10 Years Ago Today


April 18th, 1999-
Ricky Martin was gyrating, Slick Willy was still in office, and I was a scrawny 80lb American runt living in the lil town of Vaucresson, France, just outside of Paris. Across the pond in the worlds most famous arena, Wayne Gretzky was playing in his final NHL game between his New York Rangers and the Pittsburgh Penguins, a game which the Joy family kindly brought overseas to us on VHS a few week later. I don't have to sit here and give you a history lesson on the great one, since you probably heard of him . Maybe you know him from his 3 Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers, Or maybe the fact that he was the center of one of the biggest trade in sports history that had all of Canada including Wayne himself, crying more than they did when Mufasa died in "The Lion King", or maybe it was him being responsible for turning the city of Angels in to a hockey town, or maybe it was his wonderful cameo in "D2 The Mighty Ducks", bottom line is you've heard of the dude.

Having grown up in a hockey family, I have always had an admiration for the sport, even though I could never play. Growing up outside the shithole that is now Hartford, it was never out of the ordinary to go see Kevin Dineen and the Whale play, But there were 2 or 3 years that mom and dad gave us Whaler tickets for Christmas, now it wasn't special that we got Whalers tickets, it was special because they were playing the Kings. Seeing Gretzky upclosewas incredible, especially for an 10 year old. (EDITORS NOTE: I am currently watching "The Notebook" while I write this , I know but I'm bored and going through a big Rachael McAdams phaze, so puck you sir, anyway I am completely and utterly shocked that there is nudity in this movie, it took me completely off gaurd, I know it's for two seconds but nudity is nudity, and I love that Racheal McAdams is a lil hussy in this movie) I've seen some pretty noteworthy things in my life and seeing that great one live is definetly on the list, right next to seeing pigeons eat horse poo outside the Roman Coliseum, both are things I will never forget.


Anyway, the real reason i write this is to focus on the fact that professional hockey will never be the same without Wayne on the ice. He was not only the best player to ever play the game, but he was also the classiest (As you can tell by his wedding picture). After that last game ten years ago today Wayne personally signed a stick for each of his teamates,that's nothing but class, and Wayne could pull it off, if Kobe Braynt did a move like that it would be arrogant, but from Wayne it was not only appreciated but a straight from the heart move that most professional athletes wouldn't dream of doing. And in the ten years since Gretzky has left the ice, the NHL has seen it's many ups and downs, mostly downs including a players strike. We might have Crosby, and Ovechkin now but niether of them will be the athlete, teamate, and overall personality that Gretzky was. I feel like Chris Chelious is the last guy left in the NHL that gets the whole picture like Wayne did. (As it's climaxing the Notebook really stands out as a solid nursing home movie, you don't see too many of those) So in closing we have to remember the things that the great one gave us, his legacy, and his smokin hot daughter.