Monday, December 17, 2007

focus paragraph

Wayne Gretzky

Wayne Gretzky learned how to skate in a back yard rink. Wayne was born on January 26, 1961, in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, of Russian and Polish descent. Wayne has an alternative name/nickname, "The Great One". In the 1983 NHL All-Star game, Wayne scored 4 goals in the third period, set three records, tied one, and won a car. On his first shift in a game in L.A., he’d been checked cleanly, fallen against the boards and felt something give in his right shoulder. A bruise, he thought. As the days went by, it got worse, they thought it might be a sprain. 2 days after the All-Star game, they X-rayed it. The shoulder wasn’t bruised and it wasn’t sprained. It was separated. They called it “Class 1”. He played with a separated shoulder. In 4 NHL years, he’d set 24 league records and shared 10 others.
Wayne’s Granddad died in 1973. There was a special kind of closeness between Wayne and his grandparents. After he died, Wayne was even closer to his grandma, Mary. When Wayne was 5 years old he told her that some day he was going to have a car. From that day on she started putting a little of her pension money aside. In fact, she buried it and by the time Wayne was 16, she was ready. "I'm going to buy you a car," she told him. "I've got the money buried." Wayne thanked her but couldn't let her do that. A year later when Wayne turned pro, he bought a car of his own, a new Pontiac Trans-Am that he got in Indianapolis.
If you cross-check Wayne or knock him down, he just gives you that funny smile, then goes and tries to score the goal that will beat you. Wayne needed a police escort to get in and out of rinks. In his first year, he had that one goal. In his second, he scored 27, in his third, 104 plus 63 assists in 62 games. In their second tournament, Brantford beat Beaconsfield, Que., 9 to 1. He finished with 2 goals and 3 assists. Hockey has taken Wayne all over the world. He’s been to the Soviet Union, he played in Europe, and he’s hopped back and forth across North America. The longest, toughest trip he ever took was 60 miles, from Brantford to Toronto. Bill and his wife, Rita, offered to take Wayne into their home. He could live there, go to school, be in a good family situation, mix with new kids, even get a trip to Europe with the Nats for a couple of exhibition games.
Wayne has received so much recognition in his career, and most of the publicity was centred on him. Wayne stayed with the Nationals, playing 3 age groups above him. Although he hadn't started until the season was almost 6-7 years old, he scored 27 goals and got 33 assists for 60 points and was named the league's rookie-of-the-year. In pre-season Wayne had 31 points (9 goals and 22 assists) including 6 in his first game as a junior "A". He was 16 playing against 18 and 19 year olds. It ended up with Smith on top with 69 goals and 123 assists for 192 points, Wayne second at 70-112-182, and Ciccarelli third at 72-70-142. Pocklington phoned Gus and told him he wanted to sign Wayne to a 21 year contract- 9 years plus 26 year option, at $180,000 per year for nine years, plus a $100,000 bonus. That would make him an Oiler until 1999. Peter called back and offered the same deal, only at $280,000 for each of the first 9 years, plus the $100,000 bonus. Wayne's birthday was on Friday and now he is legal and was 18 so now he can go into pubs with the boys and could afford to buy a round that is if he remembered to bring any money. The Oilers put season tickets on sale and sold all 15,242 in 11 days. Edmonton set NHL records for most goals (417), most assists (706) and most points (1,123). In 1981-82, Wayne had broken his own NHL records for assists (120) and points (212). We're through the 1983-84 season and Wayne's a veteran pro at 23. Gretzky was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on November 22, 1999, becoming the tenth player to bypass the three-
year waiting period.
Gretzky met American actress Janet Jones in 1984 when he was a judge on Dance Fever and she was a dancer. In 1987 they began dating after running into each other. Janet was four months pregnant when they got married on July 17, 1988. Now they have 4 other children: Ty Robert (b. July 9, 1990), Trevor Douglas (b. September 14, 1992), Tristan Wayne (b. August 2, 2000), and Emma Marie (b. March 28, 2003). Wayne has won many awards. There were rumours about Wayne becoming the Alternate Governor and Managing Partner of the Phoenix Coyotes NHL team then on August 8 2005 Gretzky agreed to become the new coach of the Coyotes.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

quotes

  • "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it is."
  • "The only way a kid is going to practice is if it's total fun for him... and it was for me."
  • "You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
  • "The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it."

Post-retirement

Off the ice

  • Gretzky met American actress Janet Jones in 1984 when he was a judge on Dance Fever and she was a dancer on the show. They began dating after running into each other at a Los Angeles Lakers game in 1987.
  • Janet was four months pregnant with Paulina when they married on July 17, 1988.
  • "The Royal Wedding" was broadcast live throughout Canada from Edmonton's St. Joseph's Basilica, although neither Gretzky nor Jones is Roman Catholic. Members of the Fire Department acted as guards at the church steps. The lavish event reportedly cost Gretzky over US$1 million.
  • They have 4 other children: Ty Robert (b. July 9, 1990), Trevor Douglas (b. September 14, 1992), Tristan Wayne (b. August 2 2000), and Emma Marie (b. March 28, 2003). Gretzky also obtained American citizenship after the marriage and currently resides in the United States. His son Ty lived with Wayne in Arizona during the 2005-06 NHL season while the other children lived with Janet in the family's Thousand Oaks Georgian home.

transactions

some more awards

-Lou Kaplan Trophy (WHA rookie of the year) — 1979
-Hart Memorial Trophy (most valuable player) — 1980–87, 1989
-Art Ross Trophy (scoring champion) — 1981–87, 1990, 1991, 1994
-Conn Smythe Trophy (playoff most valuable player) — 1985, 1988
-Lester B. Pearson Award (outstanding player, voted by the players) — 1982–85, 1987
-Lady Byng Memorial Trophy (sportsmanship) — 1980, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1999
-NHL Plus/Minus Award (best plus-minus rating) — 1982, 1984, 1985, 1987
-Chrysler-Dodge/NHL Performer of the Year – 1985–87
-Lester Patrick Trophy (outstanding service to hockey in the United States) — 1994
-Lou Marsh Trophy (Canadian athlete of the year) — 1982, 1983, 1985, 1989
-NHL All-Star Game MVP — 1983, 1989, 1999
-NHL First All-Star Team — 1981–87, 1991
-NHL Second All-Star Team — 1980, 1988–90, 1994, 1997, 1998
-In 1998, he was ranked number 1 on The Hockey News' list of the 100 Greatest Hockey -Players
-Officer of the Order of Canada
-First international recipient of the Horatio Alger Award
-Received star on Canada's Walk of Fame

more info

  • Was born on January 26, 1961, in Brantford, Ontario, Canada, of Russian and Polish descent.
  • His father, Walter, had hoped himself to become a hockey player but was discouraged because of his size.
  • Wayne displayed an early interest in skating and recieved his first pair of skates when he was 3 years old. He learned how to skate on the Ninth River near his grandfather's farm in Canning, Ontario, and at public rinks on weekends. But it was the rink built for him by his father behind the little house on Varadi Avenue in Brantford that recieve the acclaim of being the birthplace of his skating skills.
  • He was only 6 years old when he saw his first year in organized hockey, scoring one goal, the lowest yearly total of his career. As a 9 year old in 1970-71 he scored 196 goals in 76 games, with 120 assists. The next year he scored 278 goals in 82 games.
  • In 1972-73 he scored 105 goals in the major pee wee league, and in 1974-75 he scored 90 goals in the major bantam league.
  • During his career Gretzky, a left-handed shooting center, developed a style that was as distinctive as it was exciting to watch. Listed in the program as 6 feet and 170 pounds, he always stayed away from fights, preferring to drift and glide around the ice.
  • In becoming the leading scorer in NHL history, he set a new record for assists (more than 1,300) in just 12 seasons. In 1989, he passed his idol Gordie Howe's all-time point record of 1,850. Howe supported Gretzky, according to Maclean's and called Gretzky "a great kid," and "great for hockey."
  • He was centre and captain for the Edmonton Oilers (1979-88), he lead the team to 4 Stanley Cup Victories, becoming the first player to average more then 2 points a game.
  • He was traded successively to the Los Angeles Kings (1988), the St. Louis Blues (1996), and the New York Rangers (1996). When he ended his career in 1999, he held 61 National Hockey League (NHL) records. He holds the all-time NHL records for goals (894), assists (1,963), and points (2,857), as well as corresponding seasonal records (92 goals, 163 assists, 215 points). He is the only player to have led the league in scoring for seven consecutive years (1980 – 87) and the only one named most valuable player for eight consecutive seasons (1979 – 87).
  • Wayne has a altenative name or a nickname and it is "The Great One".
  • His 47 playoff points in 1985 and 31 assists in 1988 are still records for a single post-season round, and he holds the record for career playoff goals (122), assists (260), points (382), hat tricks (10), and game winning goals (24).
  • Gretzky set impressive records in both regular season and post-season play, holding the record for most career regular season goals (894), assists (1,963), points (2,857), and hat tricks (50).
  • The regular season records include most goals in a season (92), most assists in a season (163), and most points in a season (215). He also holds the record for the fastest 50 goals, accomplishing that feat in only 39 games and the record for most goals in a 50 game period (61, which he accomplished twice). In 1983-84, he had a 51-game point-scoring streak that has been compared to "Joltin' Joe" DiMaggio's streak in baseball, during which he scored 61 goals and received credit for 92 assists (153 points).