Terry Jones appears courtesy of the Edmonton Sun

Bruce Boudreau said it’s like traveling with John, Paul, George and Ringo.

“I’ve seen a lot of documentaries on the Beatles — and it looked a lot like this,” the Washington Capitals head coach said yesterday, describing what it was like in Vancouver the night before the game.

“The Canucks had just beat us and yet people are 100 deep around our bus chanting ‘Ovie! Ovie! Ovie!’ We couldn’t get up the road.

“I know it was like this with Wayne Gretzky … I’m guessing this was very Gretzky-like.”

Boudreau was asked if he ever thought he’d see this kind of reaction to a Russian hockey player in Canada.

“No,” he replied.

And he says he’s not quite sure if he wants to see it again.

Full Story

Terry Jones appears courtesy of the Edmonton Sun

Edmonton Sun Special Report: When Glory Was Born

It was fourteen years after the fact, when the old war horse on defence retired, after a 19-year career which included six Stanley Cups.

Somebody asked what was his greatest thrill.

“May 19, 1984,” responded Kevin Lowe.

And then the tears came. In a flood. He looked at his wife Karen – the double bronze medal-winning downhill skier from the 1988 Olympic Winter Games – while his brother Ken, the trainer, brought him a bottle of water before he was able to go on.

“When Dave Lumley scored the empty-net goal …,” Lowe said, his voice breaking. “It was pretty unbelievable. When the puck went in the net – that moment will forever be in my mind.”

That’s now 25 years ago.

Kevin Lowe just turned 50.

Jari Kurri turns 49 the day before the anniversary.

Grant Fuhr and Kevin McClelland are 46. Paul Coffey is 47. Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Glenn Anderson are 48.

Charlie Huddy and Andy Moog are 49. Ken Linseman and Pat Conacher are 50.

Dave Semenko and Dave Hunter are 51. Don Jackson is 52. Randy Gregg is 53. Dave Lumley and Pat Hughes are 54. Lee Fogolin is 55. Jaroslav Pouzar is 57. And Willy Lidstrom is 58.

Most of them were barely old enough to grow playoff beards back then. And now they’re celebrating the silver anniversary of winning the big silver trophy.

Funny what you remember about May 19, 1984.

I remember driving home from the Coliseum that night and getting pulled over by the cops in a checkstop. When I rolled the window down, the police officer was knocked back by the reek of champagne.

I hadn’t had a sip.

I was headed home to change clothes and drive back to the NHL’s post-series party.

Owner Peter Pocklington, with whom my popularity was not particularly high at that precise point, had taken the trouble to write my name on a bottle of champagne then proceeding to see that I wear the entire bottle.

Pocklington – who would later have his father Basil’s name engraved on the Stanley Cup only to have it XXXXXed out by the NHL – then proceeded to provide a quote to the drenched scribe.

“This is the most incredible high I’ve ever had in my life,” said the owner, who will be celebrating Tuesday’s silver anniversary under house arrest in California on million dollar bail provided by coach Glen Sather prior to going to trial on tax fraud.

“When I said we’d win the Stanley Cup in five years the day we got into the league, I said it because I was a naive fool. But that’s what I believed. And then that’s what we all believed,” said Pocklington.

To see Gretzky carry the Stanley Cup around the ice in front of a gone-mad Coliseum crowd after only five years of the team being in the NHL following the WHA merger was one thing. But to see what the Oilers had done to a dynasty in their first step toward becoming the league’s last dynasty, was something else again.

It wasn’t that long before that the NHL was a million miles away for Edmonton, the voice of Foster Hewitt on radio and then TV with the game coming on midway in the second period.

The closest it came was when the Detroit Red Wings held training camp in Edmonton and you could watch Gordie Howe and Terry Sawchuk play their Edmonton Flyers farm club.

Then one day Bill Hunter and pals invented the WHA and Howe was playing in games here. Then Gretzky showed up and then one night in Chicago, Gretzky, Messier, Fogolin, Hunter, Lumley and Semenko were playing their first game in Chicago Stadium.

And now it’s 25 years ago since they won their first Cup?

So much has happened since. But those five years before they won that Cup, were hardly uneventful either.

There was Gretzky, first and foremost, breaking all those records, including scoring 50 goals in 39 games, the team making the playoffs that first year, losing out to the Philadelphia Flyers who virtually lined up to testify about the fabulous future in front of these kids.

SINGING ON THE BENCH

There was sweeping the Montreal Canadiens the next year and singing on the bench in their second round series in Long Island against the Stanley Cup-winning Islanders.

There was the weak-kneed wimp Miracle On Manchester setback, blowing a 5-0 lead and the series against the Los Angeles Kings the following year.

And there was getting to the 1983 final, and losing to the Islanders in a four-game sweep, a lesson which taught them how to win – Gretzky later recalled walking by the Islanders room and noticing that they were exhausted and wounded while the Oilers felt fine.

Fogolin transferred the captaincy to Gretzky in the fall of the 1983-84 season and when they started the playoffs, Sather not only had John Muckler and Ted Green as assistant coaches but, in a moment forgotten by many, he added the temporarily unemployed Roger ‘Captain Video’ Neilson to work the film room for the playoffs.

The Oilers easily disposed of the Winnipeg Jets in the first round but were pushed to Game 7 during a fabulous playoff series against the Calgary Flames with Gretzky declaring: “There’s going to be a rivalry now for sure.”

After sweeping the Minnesota North Stars in the third round, the Oilers had earned a rematch with the Islanders in the Stanley Cup final.

It was the Islanders’ ‘Drive For Five’ vs. the Oilers’ ‘Run For One.’ Or Billy vs. ‘The Kid,’ named for goalie Billy Smith vs. Gretzky.

Fuhr was great, stopping 34 shots and McClelland scored the goal to win 1-0 in Game 1 on the Island.

While the Oilers lost 6-1 in Game 2, the series involved the 2-3-2 World Series format that year so the Oilers headed home for three.

Led by Messier with two goals, the Oilers won Game 3 by a 7-2 count.

“I’ve never heard a crowd like this in Edmonton for a constant 60 minutes,” said Messier of the inspiration.

It was 7-2 again in Game 3 with Fuhr out with a shoulder injury and Andy Moog in the rest of the way.

The Oilers won Game 5 by a score of 5-2.

During the three games in Edmonton, the Oilers outscored the Islanders 19-6. The defending champions had not only been nudged off the throne, they’d been blown away and the sign on the dressing room wall said it all: “The Drive For Five Is No Longer Alive because the Thirst For First shall be quenched tonight.”

In that dressing room when it was over were more people than a dressing room can hold. It was an insane scene of family, friends, politicians and the nation’s sports media.

And everybody was drenched. Those who weren’t were taken care of by Gregg, who went around the room looking for candidates, shouting ‘You’re too dry!’

MESS WAS A MESS

Messier was crying.

Not only had he won the Stanley Cup but he was such a force they gave him the Conn Smythe Trophy too.

“Messier’s goal in Game 3 turned us into the team we had to be,” said Coffey.

“The Calgary series made all the difference,” said Lowe. “Right there. That was the time and place. That’s where we grew up. That’s where we acquired the mental toughness to win the Stanley Cup.”

Sather mentioned the World Hockey Association.

“I’m proud to have been in that league. People like Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson showed us a lot about creative hockey. It started there.”

Edmonton went crazy. The oil capital of Canada became the hockey capital of Canada. A crowd of between 100,000 and 200,000 (Police told Mayor Laurence Decore it was the latter) attended the biggest single parade ever held in Edmonton.

And thanks to the Oilers and a bet between mayors, 36 Long Island Ducks were moving to Edmonton’s Storyland Valley Zoo.

In the column I wrote while dripping with champagne that night was the following paragraph:

“Edmonton had tasted winning before but never like this. The Grey Cups were great. But uh-uh. No way. Not even close. That was the greatest single sports experience the unbelievably fortunate sports city – Canada’s City of Champions – has ever seen.”

Soon there would be signs on the outskirts of town declaring Edmonton the City of Champions.

After all that’s happened in Edmonton over the years, it’s hard to top what we witnessed that night on May, 19th, 1984.

Terry Jones appears courtesy of the Edmonton Sun

Terry Jones appears courtesy of the Edmonton Sun

Other banner-raisings have been more momentous.

And others were more emotional than when Glenn Anderson’s No. 9 finally went up to the rafters at Rexall Place last night.

But what made this one extraordinarily memorable was the players from the past who showed up to be there for the player who had to wait the longest to get there.

“Everybody was there,” said Anderson when it was over.

“It was tough to hold back the emotions. They were right there with you,” said Anderson.

No. 9 said he’s glad he didn’t have the banner-raising before his Hockey Hall of Fame induction.

“If it had been the other way around, I don’t think I’d have been able to go through my speech.

“It was amazing to have them all there. I think we showed the strength of the organization and the team we had and what we meant to each other. Everything was overwhelming,” said Anderson.

“It was a real good feeling,” said Glen Sather of being out there with all his players of the past.

“It’s nice to see everyone back here. This is what it’s all about,” said Wayne Gretzky.

The Oilers do banner-raisings better than anybody, but after you’ve done Gretzky, Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, Jari Kurri, Grant Fuhr and Al Hamilton, how do you top that with the one guy who had been overlooked by the Hockey Hall of Fame for so long?

Simple. Play the theme from the Magnificent Seven and introduce them one by one. Then cut to the Zamboni entrance where No. 9 stood in the dry-ice fog, his back to the crowd.

Except that wasn’t Glenn Anderson.

It was the Edmonton Oil Kings’ Drew Nichol.

“I got to be Glenn Anderson. And I get to keep the uniform,” said the Oil Kings tough guy.

The spotlight then hit the Oilers bench. And the real Glenn Anderson stood up, jumped over the boards and began a slow trip around the rink, waving to the crowd, many of whom were sitting in the same seats when he was scoring more game-winning goals, than any player in Oilers’ history.

There were lots of little touches, like Anderson stopping to pick up his six-year-old daughter Autumn, and to have a special moment with wife Susan and his dad Magnus who, despite his health, was able to make it after not being able to attend his Hall of Fame induction in November.

Anderson shook hands with Sather and John Muckler, who Gretzky put to work behind the Phoenix Coyotes bench as a coach for the occasion.

One by one, he did the same with every former teammate.

Eventually, Anderson took his place to watch No. 9 make the slow trip to the top of Rexall Place, the crowd standing from beginning to end when, taking a page from the Coffey banner-raising, they called on Messier to send Anderson a pass on the right side to break in on the net and score.

The only thing that might have made it better was if Billy Smith had been in the goal in a New York Islanders uniform, slashing him with his goal stick as Anderson crashed the crease to score.

Oilers president of hockey operations Kevin Lowe gave the banner-raising speech.

“Glenn, it’s nice to see you back in that uniform,” he said.

“And it’s terrific to see all these other guys. We haven’t had as many of these guys on the ice at the same time since the Heritage Classic.

“I was beginning to wonder if we’d ever get to have this celebration,” he said of the time Anderson had to wait to finally make it into the Hockey Hall.”

He spoke of Anderson’s “courage, guts and bravery” and how “when it came to crunch time, there was never anybody any better.”

“As much as Glenn marched to his own drummer, when the chips were down, we knew Glenn would deliver.”

Lowe ended it by saying, “Tonight, I hope this makes your dream come true.”

Messier’s eyes were wet as he listened to Anderson start his speech.

“It was a lot easier watching someone else,” said Messier, who was the focus of the previous banner-raising.

“He was nervous before it. As we waited for it to start, you could tell the moment got bigger and bigger.”

Messier said he wouldn’t have missed this.

“We played on the same line, roomed together on the road, lived together here in town.

“To me, he’s my brother.

“We’re all like brothers. To look out there at all our guys together again, it felt like we should still be playing,” he said.

Anderson told the crowd, “It’s great to be back in this uniform again. This jersey represents home and home is where the heart is. Right here is where my heart is.”

His last comments he saved for the fans.

“You are the greatest hockey fans in the world,” he said. “We had the time of our lives here.”

Last night was another of those times.

Terry Jones appears courtesy of the Edmonton Sun

Terry Jones appears courtesy of the Edmonton Sun

No matter where he played or who he played with, Anderson always made it fun.

Glenn Anderson didn’t get the date wrong. He didn’t mistakenly think his banner-raising was this Sunday, not next.

But he showed up here yesterday. For the event.

Right off, you get the idea that his Edmonton Oilers Hall of Fame banner -raising, like Anderson himself, is going to be a little bit, well, odd … unusual … out there …

Anderson got off the plane and proceeded directly to sign and be photographed for collector authenticity with 300 unique concept hockey jerseys that will be on sale at a kiosk at Rexall Place tonight for the San Jose Sharks game.

“I received approval from the league last night in New York at the Rangers game. Also, I have a collector’s hockey stick.

“The hockey sweater is an artist design picturing my life from the first backyard rink to the Stanley Cups.

“Instead of being on canvas and framed, it’s all on a hockey sweater. It’s really cool. Nobody has done it before. It’s different.”

Kind of like the person.

After years of fighting his space cadet, skate-to-the-beat-of-a-different-drum image, you may have noticed, watching the telecast of the Hockey Hall of Fame inductions that Anderson has come to embrace it.

The latest of the glory gang to be honoured arrived 10 days early because it’s not just the Glenn Anderson banner-raising, but Glenn’s Global Games Raising The Rafters Weekend.

“I’m a little bit behind the eight ball with some stuff,” he said of organizing his own personal hockey fantasy camp, modelled after the highly successful Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier camps — “except more fun.”

It’s an extension of a project Anderson and Igor Larianov worked on during the Hall of Fame weekend in Toronto.

“It’s a fantasy camp featuring three-on-three hockey. It’s first-class all the way.

“The players will be outfitted head-to-toe. Each team will have uniforms from a team I played for in my career, home or away — an NHL team, a Canada Cup or All-Star team. They’ll have sweat suits and team jackets. We’ve rented a restaurant for an evening. They’ll be part of the Oilers function with the Don Metz videos and everything.

“We’ll start the tournament at the rink at the River Cree Resort & Casino on Friday and then move to Rexall on Saturday and Sunday.”

The price tag is $20,000 per four-man team or $6,000 per player to be placed on a team.

There’s still room for another team or two, and another player or two.

“Each team will get a girl,” he said.

Huh?

Anderson laughed, explaining that he’s arranged with Hayley Wickenheiser to provide a female member of Canada’s national women’s hockey team for each team.

And each team will get an Oiler great.

“Jarri Kurri, Dave Semenko, Dave Hunter, Ken Linseman, Craig Simpson, Kevin Lowe, Paul Coffey, Bill Ranford and, hopefully Mark Messier,” he said.

On Thursday, Anderson will present a cheque for $10,000 to the Cross Cancer Institute, which made him an honorary chairman during his Oilers career.

And what else?

Oh, yeah.

The banner-raising.

That’s at next Sunday’s game, with Wayne Gretzky’s Phoenix Coyotes in town as they were in 2007 when Mark Messier’s No. 11 went up.

The Oilers have led the league with their banner-raisings for Gretzky, Messier, Kurri, Coffey and Grant Fuhr.

And this one, says Anderson “will be different.”

It took a long time for No. 9 to go up there, but Anderson said it isn’t going to take a long time for him to sit down.

“I’ve been to a lot of banner-raisings and the best ones are the ones that don’t go on and on.”

He’s seen Mark Messier bawl and doesn’t think he’ll do that.

But will he shed a tear?

“I hope I do,” he said. “If I don’t have the tears, I want to show people how much I cared about the city.”

And a message?

“I plan on telling the players on both teams how we bled the Oiler colours here and came to play for the crest on the uniform. And that it’s one thing to say it and another thing to do it.”

I don’t know about Gretzky’s guys, but that’s a message that Kevin Lowe’s modern-day Oilers need to hear.

Terry Jones appears courtesy of the Edmonton Sun

Anderson’s eccentricity hasn’t left him as he prepares for Hall

By Terry Jones, SUN MEDIA

Glenn Anderson doesn’t do it often anymore. But he’s still capable of morphing back into Mork. He did it yesterday in his Hockey Hall of Fame conference call interview session.

“I heard there’s ghosts in the Hall,” he said. “I can just imagine my picture probably looking right at Father Bauer or Glen Sather.

“I’m thinking about it as the plaque – I don’t know what kind of picture they’re going to use for me, but as the plaque is hung and if our ghosts at some point in time, when we’re no longer around and the lights are out and nobody’s there … well, I can hear Slats going ‘It’s past curfew, you better go to bed.’ ”

Anderson was responding to a question from your correspondent which had, trust me, nothing to do with ghosts or anything else involved in the answer.

It was tough not to pick up on it. And a Toronto writer followed suit.

“So there’s the whole space cadet thing that goes on as a young guy. Was that all justified, you know, the space cadet image, sort of, you know, the different drummer, and in a way do you kind of relish it now?” the scribe asked.

The writer was reacting to Anderson allowing that he’d been hung with the Mork nickname (from the alien character played by Robin Williams in the Mork and Mindy sitcom) in a column by the Edmonton sports columnist with whom he had a frosty relationship for the first few years of his career as a result – a relationship which would go on to warm up considerably in later years.

OLD WOUNDS

“Relish it? Well, I don’t know about that! I think Terry would have a different opinion of me after spending some great quality time together. And I’m sure that’s true with a lot of other people as well.

“The only way I could say I relish it is the fact that I’m really glad that I’m an individual and that I’m a little different than your average hockey player; which I think all players should be unique in their own way and beat to their own drummer. I mean that’s part of life. I think, if anything, it’s an attribute.”

You can see how on occasion the deep-from-inside and the way-out-there Glenn Andersons could get confused. There were those on the conference call who were fishing to see if the Oilers’ great would bite on the idea that the off-ice Glenn Anderson had kept the on-ice Glenn Anderson out of the Hall until this late date.

Fair question. In 16 seasons he played 1,129 regular-season games, recording 1,099 points on 498 goals and 601 assists, won five Stanley Cups in Edmonton in the 1980s and 1990, and one with the New York Rangers in 1994.

He appeared in 225 playoff games, which is his seventh on the all-time list and also ranks fifth in playoff goals with 93, seventh in assists with 121, and fourth overall all-time in playoff points with 214. And then there are perhaps his most impressive numbers, being tied for third in overtime playoff goals and tied for fifth with 17 playoff game winning goals.

He should have been an automatic inductee.

When Anderson spoke to that it definitely wasn’t Mork speaking.

NO DEFINED STANDARD

“It’s tough to judge on what determines what gets you in and what keeps you out,” he said. “They don’t say ‘The criteria for getting in is this, and you meet this, this and this or what you do off the ice is material or immaterial.’ I mean it’s been over 10 years for me. It’s a difficult question for me to answer because I don’t know. Is it the stats? His championships? What is it exactly? It’s not written in stone. So I don’t know the answer.

“Of course you think about it, but I didn’t dwell on it. As I get closer to the day we now get to reflect on a life history of what transpired. I’ve had a little time to think of it, more than your average person. So I’m savouring the moments and seconds as they go by.”

Definitely not Mork.

But who shows up to the induction Monday? Mork? The other guy? Or both, like they did yesterday?

…That Changed Hockey Forever

By Terry Jones, SUN MEDIA

EDMONTON — When Wayne Gretzky returned to then-Northlands Coliseum as a King on Oct. 19, 1988, fans held up a banner which seemed to sum up how the city of Edmonton was dealing with the trade.

It was Wayne Gretzky’s wedding day.

Eddie Mio was doing his duty as best man, getting the groom to church on time.

“We were on the way to the church when Wayne looked at me. ‘Eddie, I’m getting traded out of here. I’m not going to be here,’ Wayne told me … on the way to the church,” said Mio. Mio looked at Gretzky and played it perfect, considering the situation.

“Wayne, you’re getting married. Don’t even think about it. Enjoy the day,’ I told him. I didn’t believe it. I didn’t think it was possible to take Wayne away from Edmonton. I just didn’t think anything like that could happen. No way.” Don Metz, the high profile Edmonton video maker who filmed the so-called Royal Wedding, couldn’t believe his ears either.

“A few days after their wedding, I drove Wayne and Janet to the airport. They were in the back seat of my Suburban,” said Metz.

“I was chatting with Wayne, looking at him in the rearview mirror. ‘When do I see you again?’ I asked.

“How does Oct. 5 sound?” said Gretzky.

“‘Oct. 5? What about training camp?”

“‘I don’t think so,” said Wayne looking out the window.

I asked him who he’d play for. He kept looking out the window. For those five or six seconds it felt like time stopped. And I knew better than to ask again.

This past week Metz has here. I’m not going to be here,’ Wayne told me … on the been putting the finishing touches on a one-hour show entitled A Day The Game Changed, revisiting a date that became infamous in Canadian history, Aug. 9, 1988.

It will run for the next two weeks on the NHL Network. “It was John Shannon’s idea,” Metz said of the NHL’s VP of broadcasting.

“His idea was to use this as the pilot for a 12-part series on days that changed the game in hockey, to tell cultural stories about hockey like (those that) have been told so often about baseball.”

“I see A Day That Changed The Game as being a concept I’d like to franchise to other sports.”

“If you’re doing days that changed the game of hockey, though, you definitely have to start with this one.”

The Day That Changed The Game?

“It’s pretty hard for me to comprehend that. I don’t look at it that way,” said Gretzky this week from his summer place in Idaho.

“Mark Messier going to New York was great for hockey there. Brett Hull doesn’t get enough credit in Texas. Th ere were lots of guys. I think I was maybe the first piece of that puzzle.”

There may have been 11 other days that changed the game in hockey. But this was the day that changed the game and what probably says it more than anything else is that Gretzky, 20 years later, is coaching the Phoenix Coyotes in the NHL.

“Would I be in Phoenix doing what I’m doing today? No. No chance,” laughed No. 99 when he returned the Sun Media call.

“I’d probably still be in Edmonton going to lunches and dinners on behalf of the Oilers.”

Still, there are mixed messages on what hockey means in the U.S. 20 years after the Gretzky trade.

On one hand, in the last few years teams called the Tampa Bay Lightning, Carolina Hurricanes and Anaheim Ducks have won the Stanley Cup.

But on the other, the NHL’s TV numbers in the U.S. are as low as most cult sports and there are plenty of good seats to be had in most of those rinks. As for Gretzky’s legacy with the Kings – during the last two years, the Los Angeles Times didn’t send a beat writer on the road with the team.

“There’s probably some credence to that,” said Gretzky.

The impact is open to great debate, but there is no debate on a couple of other items. Gretzky, until that day, was effectively the league’s salary cap. When somebody wanted more money, all the GM had to say was: “I’m not paying you more than Wayne Gretzky.”

Earlier this week, Gretzky said: “I was making $400,000 and there were a couple of guys getting up to a million. I had a year left on my contract and I was going to play hardball, but I wasn’t thinking of leaving. I wanted to catch up and I felt there were other guys on our team that needed to catch up, too.”

Salaries went up in a hurry. Who knows if it would have made any difference, eventually, in where they ended up today.

Today, players from California and other Sun Belt cities are showing up in the Western Hockey League and getting drafted into the NHL.

On that front, at least, Gretzky has no hesitation to say today that the trade definitely had an effect in a good way.

“I’m ecstatic about it,” said Gretzky. “Absolutely. Kids are playing hockey in California and Arizona, Texas and a lot of those places. Back when I went to Los Angeles, there were maybe six or seven good kids on most of the teams.

“Now, at just about every level, there are teams which can compete with teams of that same level in Canada. And some are making the NHL. There’s such a huge population in those areas and kids are playing the game. And when kids play this game they see how good it is. I’m proud of that.”

TRADE WAS A TOUGH DAY

Aug. 9 isn’t a day Gretzky celebrates. For years after when he came to play in Edmonton, he insisted the bus driver take a route where he couldn’t see his statue in front of the building. From several perspectives, financially for one, his life has turned out better. But that day still isn’t an enjoyable exercise in nostalgia for anybody involved on this side of the border.

Twenty years ago Wayne’s dad Walter said it was all telegraphed to him.

“I knew Wayne was getting traded days before he did because Nelson Skalbania phoned me and asked, ‘How much does Wayne make?’ I said ‘Why?’ He said ‘Because Peter’s shopping him to the highest bidder. I said ‘No he’s not.’ He said ‘Yes he is.’ That was during the 1988 Stanley Cup finals.

“The day after they won that fourth Cup, Wayne said ‘You know, dad, I’m going to shop for a house in Edmonton.’ And I told him ‘You better forget that, they’re shopping you.’ ”

Many people figured Gretzky knew he would soon leave Edmonton when he gathered the team on the ice and posed with the Cup, something that had never been done before and now is a tradition with Cup-winning teams.

Gretzky denies that, saying it was kept from him until after they’d won the Cup. And the first thing he’d heard was that he was going to Vancouver, although over the years he discovered, “(the trade talk) went back to the second round of the playoffs.”

The trade rumours actually first surfaced the year after he’d entered the league.

Then, the year he won his first Stanley Cup, there was the rumour Gretzky was going to the New York Rangers for $15 million US ($18 million Cdn at the time).

Gretzky’s agent Mike Barnett said he’d heard it “six or eight times” in the same day.

“Nonsense,” said Oilers owner Peter Pocklington, who blamed the Calgary Flames for starting the story.

A few days later, Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard told me that Pocklington pitched Gretzky to him for $18 million to bail out of bad business deals.

“Happy Harold has obviously lost all his marbles,” said Pocklington. “Wayne Gretzky belongs to me and he always will. That’s absolute rubbish.”

Again the story went away. But it kept coming back and always the number was $18 million. The last time the story was emphatically denied was Aug. 4, 1988.

“There’s nothing to it,” said coach and general manager Glen Sather. “Every summer it’s a different rumour. This one goes in the same bin as all the others. If there’s anything like that I’m sure Peter would let me know. There’s nothing to it.”

FIVE DAYS LATER …

On Aug. 9, 1988, Wayne Douglas Gretzky was sold to the Los Angeles Kings for $15 million US, $18 million Canadian. And like Americans, who remember exactly where they were when John F. Kennedy was assassinated or when man landed on the moon, most Canadians can tell you where they were that day.

Shock. Outrage. Anger. None of those emotions quite covered it, especially in Edmonton where the reaction was not unlike a death in the family, a death not by natural causes.

The Edmonton Sun coverage was incredible the next day. And the front page headline, written by then-sports editor Phil Rivers, will be remembered for almost as long as the day will be recalled: 99 TEARS.

On the cover there was the picture of Gretzky dabbing his tears, the headline and the only other words on the page were: “Pages 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 18, 19, 23, 30, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46 and 47.”

It was called a trade, but it wasn’t.

“It was not a trade,” says Sather. “It was a sale. It was about money.”

Sather, with Pocklington out of the picture, on the 10th anniversary of the day the dirty deed was done, finally spilled the story from his side and tells it the same another decade later.

“I took Wayne into a room with just the two of us at Molson House. I talked to him and said I’d stop the deal. I told him I’d tell Peter I’d resign if he didn’t stop the deal. But Wayne decided not to because it was all beyond repair at that point.”

The way Gretzky remembers it today is: “Glen had me in there a whole hour.”

Sather was in the dark all the way until Pocklington finally told him, allowing him to at least have an influence in getting some players and picks.

“I was the last to know. We went to the Arctic fishing. I think everybody on the Arctic trip knew about the deal except me. Peter was afraid to tell me. And I don’t blame him,” said Sather.

The only thing Sather adds to the story 20 years later is when Pocklington finally told him, he now says he physically pushed his owner.

“I gave him a big shove. I thought about decking him.”

Gretzky had tears in his eyes during the press conference and couldn’t get any words out other than the ones most hockey fans remembered … “I promised Mess I wouldn’t do this.”

Pocklington, who was being hung in effigy in Edmonton, claimed at the time that Gretzky was just pretending to cry, but now admits those were real tears.

At the press conference, he also suggested it was because Janet wanted to live in Los Angeles, but now he admits he said that to try and make himself look better. Now, 20 years later, he says the mistake he made “was not putting my arm around him and saying to the press, that if you don’t want the deal to go through…”

It’ll be interesting to see what Pocklington says on the 25th anniversary.

“I regret doing it and wish I hadn’t done it,” would be nice.

—

THE TRADE

TO LOS ANGELES: Wayne Gretzky, Marty McSorley, Mike Krushelnyski

TO EDMONTON: Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, $18 million (Cdn), L.A.’s first-round pick in 1989 (later traded to New Jersey for Corey Foster; the Devils picked Jason Miller), L.A.’s first-round pick in 1991 (Martin Rucinsky) and L.A.’s first-round pick in 1993 (Nick Stajduhar).

Wayne’s Charitable Work Making A Difference
By TERRY JONES, Sun Media

PHOENIX — Recently, Christopher Kowie collapsed of cardiac arrest during a dog show at the Civic Centre in Brantford.  A public access defibrillator, donated by the Wayne Gretzky Foundation, saved his life.

“He was having a heart attack in my home town” Gretzky said. “The doctor said that had a defibrillator not been there, he would have died. The defibrillator was there because of money raised by my foundation. Those kind of things are very rewarding.”

Much has changed in Gretzky’s world since he made the transition from player to coach. Saving people’s lives with defibrillators is one of them.

“I think the biggest thing that’s changed in my life is the explosion of my foundation,” he said.

“What’s changed is how much I try to do and how much money I try to raise. I’m always thinking what we can do to get more money for the foundation.

One of the things we’re trying to do is get as many defibrillators out there as possible,” Gretzky said.

It was his brother Glen who told him about the life-saving story.

“I phoned Wayne right before a game to tell him about the defibrillator in Brantford,” said Glen, who is the executive director of the foundation. “Right then, four years worth of work was worth it just with that one man. He still keeps in touch with us. He’s fine now.

“We bought a bunch of (the defibrillators), worth about $100,000. It works out to about $4,000 each, including the training. We put them in arenas and community centres.”

Gretzky has a long history of putting his name on charitable events.

But the creation of his own foundation is relatively recent.

“To be honest, the foundation was created to make my life easier in so many directions,” he said of the charitable things he was involved in “helter skelter” as he put it.

“It started around the time I retired, but itís really taken off in the last three years.”

While Wayne and his name raise the money, Glen and dad Walter get to experience the rewards first-hand. Like flying a plane-load of hockey equipment to Iqaluit, Nunavut.

“That went great. They went crazy. I loved it,” Glen said. “People don’t see the work Wayne puts in. My dad and I have the time. We get to feel like Santa Claus.”

“It was incredible,” Walter said. “To take everything up there was such a big thrill. They have nothing.”

Gretzky remembers the first time he took on an event to raise money for charity.

“It was in 1979 sitting on the back step with my friend John Mowat,” he said of his childhood pal and the tennis tournament they invented for Brantford.

“My dad and his dad took over the whole event, otherwise it would have been a complete mess,” he said of raising money for the CNIB and Down Syndrome.

It’s a long list of things the Wayne Gretzky Foundation has done already.

The foundation funds an after-school program for those with autism, purchases ice time, provides equipment and even paid for a national sled hockey team to go to a championship in Sweden.

“It’s not just for hockey, but kids in general,” Wayne said. “It all makes you feel so good about what you do.”

Part of No. 99′s deal with his partner Peter Jensen in the Wayne Gretzky Estates winery is that a six-figure sum be forwarded to the foundation every year.

They already did a Gretzky wine bottle signing in Los Angeles — not part of the foundation — which produced more than $100,000 toward building a local school playing field.

Ford and Samsung are also a big part of the foundation.

For six years now, Gretzky has run his own fantasy camp, contributing well into six figures to the foundation. For several years, Gretzky played host to a Wayne Gretzky & Friends golf day, usually involving Mike Weir and two other NHL players, such as Brett Hull and Jarome Iginla.

But coming this year is a new, massive event which is hoped will raise a half million dollars for the foundation. Gretzky is getting involved with golf in a bigger way by hosting the Nationwide Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic in Collingwood, Ont., July 10-13.

“(It) came about as a result of Wayne attending the event in Greenville, S.C., three years in a row,” Gretzky’s business manager Darren Blake said.

“A good friend of mine ran that tournament. We sat around last year, talking about taking the event to Canada. Wayne decided to run with it and see what we could do. It kind of grew in a hurry. We decided to make it like the AT&T Pebble Beach and the Bob Hope. We’ll have 160 players and as many amateurs and celebrities ó probably 30 celebrities and 130 paying amateurs.

“We decided on $8,000 an amateur for the first year but we should have made it $9,999 like the fantasy camp. We will the next year. It’ll raise a half a million for the foundation for sure.

“The celebrities will all be ‘A’ list. John Elway and George Brett have already confirmed. And of course weíll have a large contingent of hockey stars. All four days will be on The Golf Channel. This will be the Nationwide Tourís marquee event. They want to grow it to a very high level.”

Gretzky said he didn’t need his arm twisted.  “I just decided ‘I’ve got to get one of these for Canada.”

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Wayne Skilled At Stickhandling Through Hectic Lifestyle
By TERRY JONES, Sun Media

PHOENIX — You’d think Trevor Gretzky would look at grandpa Walter and his dad, Wayne, and wonder.

But he doesn’t. Despite the schedule his dad keeps and the fact he spends the hockey season in Phoenix with the Coyotes while mom Janet and the family live in Los Angeles, 15-year-old Trevor figures it’s not so much different being Wayne’s son as it was for his dad being Walter’s.

“It’s kinda the same, I think, as with him and his dad,” he said.

Uncle Glen said that’s true. Well, sort of.

“As a family, we did everything together. It’s the same with Wayne,” Wayne’s younger brother Glen said.

“When we went on a holiday, we all climbed in the old station wagon. It’s like that with them, but when they go it’s in his private jet.

“He makes it work. Every time I’m here, some of the kids are here. It’s not too often that there isn’t somebody from the family at his house. Wayne is the most committed guy with anything he does. It’s the same with his kids as it was for dad with us kids.”

“It doesn’t make much sense to some people with the kids living in L.A. with their mom. But it works fine,” Walter said. “Their dad is their dad. They’re all happy. Even though Wayne is busy and Janet is busy, they have time for their kids and get involved in what their kids get involved in, like we did with ours.”

It was a family scene at last year’s Wayne Gretzky Fantasy Camp as Trevor, a tall, slender kid, suited up as a goalie.

“I told him he’s so tall, he reminded me of Ken Dryden standing in goal,” Wayne said. “He said ‘who’s Ken Dryden?’”

After his dad coached the Coyotes to a win during the camp, Trevor had brother Tristan, 7, putting on his pads so he could take shots at his kid brother.

“Does your dad know you’re a goalie?” I asked young Tristan.

“Not yet,” the cute kid said with a giggle.

Last year, brother Ty, 17, played in the camp. He went to play hockey last year at Shattuck-St. Mary’s high school in Minnesota, but stayed home this year.

“He’s serious about golf,” said Trevor, who describes himself as mostly a baseball player and a football tight end.

“Ty was going to go live with my mom and dad in Brantford, but then my mom got sick,” Wayne said. “He didn’t play a lot. He realized he was not going to be a player. But it was all good. He lived away from home and he loved the year. He’s not going to look back when he’s 25 wishing he’d given it a try.”

Gretzky’s oldest, Paulina, who was such a hit singing the national anthem at the Heritage Classic outdoor game in Edmonton, is now 19.

Paulina is working on her singing and acting career. She chose not to go to college, but rather to work with a singing coach and take acting lessons.

His youngest, Emma, is four.

“I work the schedule so I can leave here after a game and grab a couple days at home. And they come here every second weekend. It works out,” Wayne said.

Trevor said the cool part of the Fantasy Camp week was having Grandpa Gretzky involved as well. Walter makes only two or three trips here a year.

“Grandpa has taught me a lot about life. Grandpa taught dad well,” Trevor said.

Walter was recently informed he’d won the Order of Canada.

“I don’t know anybody who does more in his life than my father, running coast to coast for the blind kids, going to hospitals at Christmas time, being honorary chairman of the Heart and Stroke Foundation and everything else he does,” said Wayne, an Order of Canada winner himself.

“He was always a charitable person, but when he went through his aneurism, he really placed a huge emphasis on helping a lot of people. He really is special that way. If anybody is deserving of the award it’s my dad.”

Walter is blown away by it.

“My parents were White Russians from Belarus. They wouldn’t be able to comprehend. When the Governor General called, I was stunned. I still can’t get over it. It’s such an honour. It’s incredible. It’s crazy. Canada is the best country in the world. I can say it. I can prove it,” said the man who is also the Lord Mayor of Brantford now, too.

Walter just wished his wife Phyllis would have lived to see him receive the Order. Losing Phyllis, in December 2005, obviously, had a major impact on both Walter and Wayne.

“When my mother passed away, it was 10:30 at night,” Wayne said. “I went back and had a bunch of people come to our house that night. By 1:30 in the morning, my dad still wasn’t back. I was getting worried. Finally he showed up. I asked his friend Charlie Henry ‘Where have you guys been?’

“Charlie said dad wouldn’t leave the hospital bed. He said he sang to my mom for two hours. He always sang to her. And he couldn’t carry a tune. I said that’s probably what killed her.”

Walter said it was a thing they had.

“I always sang to Phyllis. I sang to her a lot. She used to tell me ‘Walter be quiet. You’re giving me a headache.’”

Wayne made it to the hospital in time.

“He was the last person she stared at before she left us,” Walter said.

“He was at the foot of the bed. Iím at the side of the bed holding her hands. Suddenly, her eyes started flickering. She tried to lift her head to see Wayne. I put my hand on the back of her head to help her. Then her eyes stopped flickering and she stared at Wayne for a full 10 seconds. Then she reached her arm out above his head for another 10 seconds. Then she was gone.

“Wayne said ‘I felt her take me in her arms.’ That sounds silly. But he said he felt him take her in her arms and physically felt her leave. She held on just to see Wayne. I know that for sure. Then she was gone.”

Wayne’s World Reaches Far Beyond The Rink

By Terry Jones, SUN MEDIA

PHOENIX — Wayne Gretzky hasn’t scored a goal in nine years, but he’s still dishing out the assists. Indeed, he’s having a record-setting season, business-wise. “The level of business he is at right now is higher than at any point of his playing career,” said Darren Blake, executive director of WDG Enterprises.

For most of his career, Wayne Gretzky was both the spokesman and the pitchman for the sport. Nobody has come close to replacing him in either capacity, especially the latter.

“Everything is really going well,” Gretzky said at his fantasy camp, presented by Pepsi. “My relationship with Ford and Samsung are very strong and solid. My restaurant in Toronto, my wine estates, Gretzky.com, all of it, is solid.”

Blake said No. 99 is easier to schedule now that he has the uniform off.

“He’s not at the mercy of the team like he was as a player,” he said.

Blake came into Wayne’s world in what you might call an entry-level position.

“I knew Gretz when he first came to the Rangers. I found him a place to live and schools for the kids, Broadway tickets, dinner reservations. That was my job then and we hit it off.

“When he decided to coach, he called and said he was looking to make some changes to the face of and scope of the business. He wanted me to take over the day-to-day running of his business with Ford, Samsung, a huge new emphasis on his foundation, Roots of Canada, Pepsi, his wine company, the Breitling watch company, Wayne Gretzky Authentics and Gretzky.com.”

WDG Enterprises now employs seven full-time people, including an accountant and an in-house lawyer. With Canadian Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns joining up, there will probably be 10 full-time employees soon.

“Wayne always had the idea he had to put in an honest day of work and with most of his partnerships he does,” Blake said of the time the Great One gives of himself.

“I’d like to see him get into more things where he can relax and let his name earn the money. I’d been telling Wayne that he’s at the point where he should be earning money in his sleep. The wine business is a good example of that.”

In Calgary, Gretzky was often referred to as “The Whiner” during his Oiler days. Who knew he’d end up being a winer, joining Peter Jensen in a wine partnership.

“Mike Weir had a hobby brand that sold about 12,000 cases.

Wayne passed that on Day 1. It’s kinda neat lately. Instead of signing sticks, Wayne’s signing a lot of bottles of wine,” Blake said. Jensen is a big part of that enterprise.

“A mutual acquaintance let us know Wayne was interested in the wine business. We did a presentation and he liked it, liked us and we bought a small winery and named it Wayne Gretzky Estates,” said Jensen, who was involved in the business with Creekside Estate Winery in the Niagara region.

“We’re looking at becoming one of the top 10 in Canada, a 100,000 to 200,000 case-a-year brand and making a major initiative into the U.S.

“The thing I find most remarkable about being involved in a business with Wayne is that he’s exactly the same as he was on the ice when it was obvious that the key to his success was that he saw everything.

It’s the same with him off the ice. He sees more than an average observer would see.”

David Greenberg, the VP of marketing for Ford of Canada, said the relationship with Gretzky began six years ago when Ford was in a down period.

“At the time, we were having our challenges. When we came out and announced at an annual dealers meeting in Las Vegas that Wayne had joined the Ford team there were literally tears in the eyes of a lot of our dealers. It was a unifying event for our dealers. Canada is a hockey country and there are plenty of good hockey players, past and present, but there is only one Wayne Gretzky.”

With the business now, it’s personal.

“Wayne is now way more into partnerships and relationship.

That’s why his business partnerships are so carefully selected,” said Lauri Holomis, who started in the business with the Edmonton Trappers and now works for the Young & Rubicam ad agency out of Toronto, dealing directly with the Ford and wine accounts.

Re-launched four months ago, there has been a major initiative toward revamping the more-or-less stagnant Gretzky.com website into something far more substantial, aided by a partnership with Canada’s Insight Sports. The project is headed by Kevin Albrecht and features Coyotes colourman Darren Pang, former Ottawa and Edmonton radio morning man and comedian Jim Jerome and Canadian women’s hockey team member Jennifer Botterill as online hosts.

“Our goal is to make it a main resource for covering all things hockey,” said producer Craig Johnson, who grew up in Gretzky’s home town of Brantford, Ont., and previously worked with the Toronto Blue Jays.

“We’re attempting to grow it into a broader hockey destination — the hockey version of Oprah.com and Marthastewart.com, not just a flashback site.”

In business, Wayne’s world has become a whole new world.