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Why Wayne Gretzky was so good


habsfan1

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A really good read I found online...

Before long, he could see the whole evolving situation – everything that was happening on the ice
and the movement of every player – in his mind. “When you’re 170 pounds playing with 210-pound
guys, you learn to find out where everybody is on the ice at all times,” Gretzky noted. Being small forced
Gretzky to develop an exquisite hockey brain. He built a predictive model of hockey in his head, so that
as a game unfolded he could use memories of past games and tactics, and a reading of the immediate
situation, to predict what would happen next.

Every other good player does this to some extent. But Gretzky could do it just a little bit faster and
a little more accurately than everyone else.
Lots of kids growing up in Canada have skated for hours from
the time they were preschoolers. Lots of kids had father’s who coached and drove them. Most of those
kids had bigger, stronger bodies than Gretzky. Yet none of them became a Wayne Gretzky, because none
of them developed the predictive brain Gretzky had.

...

He truly was able to understand what was going to happen an instant or two before anyone else on
the ice– and skate to where the puck was going to be. That was his famous line: He’d say that he doesn’t
skate to where the puck is – he skates to where it’s going to be.
Commentators would often say that
Gretzky seemed to be two seconds ahead of everyone else . That capability drove Gretzky’s phenomenal
success in the NHL. Gretzky went on to lead his Edmonton Oilers to four Stanley Cup championships.

“He reads where other people are going to be,” said Grant Fuhr, who played with Gretzky on the
Oilers. “People don’t even think of a play, because they don’t think that play is possible. And Gretzky
makes that play. He’ll pass to a place, not a player. Somebody’ll be heading to a place, and Wayne knows
they can score from that spot, and that’s where (the puck) goes.”

The full article titled ''The Two Second Advantage'' can be found in the link below...

http://www.thetwosecondadvantage.com/resources/the-two-second-advantage-chapter-one.pdf

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The article is bang on.

That's exactly why Gretzky was good....but not the best.

Gretzky was the great facilitator, but he needed the right supporting cast to facilitate for.

Orr and Lemieux could do it on their own.

Both would eat Gretzky in one-on-ones.

1- Orr

2- Lemieux

3- Gretzky

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Gretzky...as the third greatest of all time? No, I can't buy that. The man rewrote the record book like no one before him. Lemieux and Orr? Great in their own right, but they're not better then Gretzky. Not at all.

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I was reading Jeremy Roenick's autobiography, and he talked about Gretzky as a coach in unflattering terms, but he mentioned how as a coach, Gretzky couldn't relate because he simply saw the game differently. Gretzky's skill level was so high and his mind's interpretation of the sport so complete that he existed at a totally different level, and that is something you simply can't teach.

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Orr and Lemieux could do it on their own.

So we're going to do the whole "Gretzky just had great teammates" excuse and ignore that Lemieux had Kevin Stevens, Ron Francis, Joey Mullen, Ulf Samuelsson, Bryan Trottier, Paul Coffey, Mark Recchi, and Jaromir Freaking Jagr? Asinine. No man is an island; all Lemieux could do on his own was smoke two packs a day.

It's tragic but expected that Gretzky couldn't impart his vision of the game on other players. He really was on another level. I wonder what his brain would have taken him to if he hadn't stayed with hockey.

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

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Yeah Lemieux and Orr didn't have great teammates. What a silly argument.

My favorite Gretzky stat: Wayne and Brent Gretzky have the record for most points between two brothers in NHL history. Wayne has 2,857. Brent has 4.

PvO6ZWJ.png

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Yeah Lemieux and Orr didn't have great teammates. What a silly argument.

My favorite Gretzky stat: Wayne and Brent Gretzky have the record for most points between two brothers in NHL history. Wayne has 2,857. Brent has 4.

Random fun useless fact: I once met Wayne back home in Pensacola--this was like '97 or '98 or so. Why was the Great One even in lil' ol' Pensacola to begin with? To watch his lil' bro play, as at that time Brent was a member of the then-ECHL Ice Pilots. It was kind of a big deal at the time.

All that greatness and of all things I had the nerve to ask him about Pro Stars.....

*Disclaimer: I am not an authoritative expert on stuff...I just do a lot of reading and research and keep in close connect with a bunch of people who are authoritative experts on stuff. 😁

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My favorite Gretzky stat: Wayne and Brent Gretzky have the record for most points between two brothers in NHL history. Wayne has 2,857. Brent has 4.

My favourite Gretzky stat has to be that he has more career assists than any other player has points. That means that even if he never scored a single goal he would still be the all time points leader. When you say that, plus add the fact that he is also the all time goals leader, it sounds ridiculous to say that he isn't the best player who ever lived.

Many people who try to make arguments for Orr or Mario claim that if it weren't for injuries their careers would be even more illustrious. That may be true, but something has to be said for durability. Aside from one season, Gretzky was able to avoid major injury problems. For someone who was smaller than most of the other players on the ice, that is very impressive.

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Can someone please explain to me why Orr is so loved and rated highly? Anyway, here's my top five:

1.Wayne Gretzky

2. Gordie Howe

3. Bobby Orr

4. Mario Lemieux

5. Steve Yzerman

Why is Orr so highly rated? Because he redefined the defensive position, and showed that a defenseman could score and play defense. When you watch players like Scott Niedermayer, Nicklas Lidstrom, Drew Doughty, Ray Borque, etc. It was Orr that revolutionized the sport. He was the first defenseman to win the scoring title (69-70) and the only defenseman to do it, and he did it twice. The fact that you question Bobby Orr, shows your lack of hockey knowledge. You could argue that Orr had more of an impact on the game than Gretzky did because he changed the way a position was played, but then again, Wayne did too. It was Gretzky who perfected making plays from behind the net. When you talk Gretzky, Howe, Orr, Lemieux, and Roy. You're talking the best and nit-picking as to who's the best among them and who had the biggest impact on the game. Yes, I eliminated Stevie Y, because he was a great player and a great leader, but Patrick Roy revolutionized goaltending and brought in the butterfly style. You could even say Hasek did the same in bringing the athletic style to goal tending. I just think it's nit-picking when you are talking about who's the best amongst greats. But Orr did revolutionize the defensive position.

 

 

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Hasek was the Gretzky of goalies... he didn't bring any kind of style to the sport that others followed, because he was the only one who could do the things he did. Maybe you could say modern goalies are slightly more unconventional because of him, but nobody really does what he did. I've never seen another goalie like him in the NHL.

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My favorite Gretzky stat: Wayne and Brent Gretzky have the record for most points between two brothers in NHL history. Wayne has 2,857. Brent has 4.

Similar: Hank and Tommie Aaron have the record for most home runs between two brothers in MLB history. Hank has 755. Tommie has 13.

BigStuffChamps3_zps00980734.png

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Hasek was the Gretzky of goalies... he didn't bring any kind of style to the sport that others followed, because he was the only one who could do the things he did.

Yeah, now there are rules against hurling your stick at everything you see.

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

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Hasek was the Gretzky of goalies... he didn't bring any kind of style to the sport that others followed, because he was the only one who could do the things he did.

Yeah, now there are rules against hurling your stick at everything you see.

He hurled himself at everything that was moving; he normally just dropped the stick to use his blocker hand more freely.

Drop the stick:

Hurl himself. I feel like this is probably illegal now:

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Is there any love here for Mike Bossy? I mean he was a really great player, but had his career cut short for injuries. Are we classifying greatness by legacy and influence as much as how skillful he was no matter how long he played for?

If he had played for another 8-10 years, even with his scoring totals dropping with his age, he still could have added another 250-300 goals to his career. That'd put him up there with the all time best.

I think you can easily call Gretzky the greatest, then probably Lemieux #2, but even then it gets really fuzzy.

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