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When I played in a 21-team league, there were six or seven goalies who were just average, and the equipment and pads were smaller. I came in the right era. I played for the right team. It was all speed, and creativity and imagination.

Wayne Gretzky

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Wayne Gretzky
Age: 63
Born: 1961
Born: January 26
Ice Hockey Coach
Ice Hockey Player
Restaurateur
The Corporation of the City of Brantford
The Great One
Wayne Douglas Gretzky
Seven
Equipment
Creativity
Smaller
Team
Eras
Imagination
League
Came
Six
Right
Speed
Played
Goalies
Average
Pads

More quotes by Wayne Gretzky

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I think the Americans are ready to play, they want to beat us. I think that players like Chris Chelios and his leadership over there goes a long way.
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I just like to keep my money in the bank I'm not a big risk-taker. I don't know anything about the stock market... I stay away from things I don't know anything about.
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Most players go where the puck is. I go where the puck will be.
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Listen, everything I have in my life is because of the NHL and because of hockey, and I love the game and I loved every minute of being a player, I loved coaching, I loved being involved in the NHL.
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It doesn't matter what I think. It doesn't matter what other people think. You have to get on the ice and participate and play and the best team wins.
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It's really hard. And it's harder today because of the salary cap. It starts in September at training camp - getting every guy on the same page, being as mentally and physically as focused as you can be. Then in April and May, you basically spend eight weeks practising, watching video and playing games. That's your life.
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Lifting the Stanley Cup for the first time. There's nothing like it. It's the greatest story. In my era, they used to say you couldn't be a superstar without winning one. I remember thinking when I lifted it: Now they can't say that about me.
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It's just amazing how many companies suddenly want you to hold up their products after you've held up the Stanley Cup.
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When people come up to me and say, I was at your Game 7 in the playoffs in Toronto, or, I saw your first goal in the NHL, that triggers memories. But I don't sit around my kitchen table and tell my kids, You know, one year I got 92 goals.
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Growing up, I was always the small guy.
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What you want to do with your best players is, it doesn't matter how many goals and assists they get, but when they get goals and assists. The best players get them at the most important times, and that's when we need those guys to come through.
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He brings something special. I don't know what it is, but if you ask him, you couldn't understand his answer.
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As a player, you have one responsibility, to focus yourself and be ready for the game. As a coach, your responsibility is to get 20 guys ready and have them all on the same page. If you can't get every guy ready every night, you're going to struggle.
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Kids don't fight in minor hockey anymore. There's very few fights in junior and college hockey. So growing up, all these guys are not fighting.
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I can't remember the last time I went to a game and there was a fight. I think they fight more in baseball now than they do in hockey.
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Skating alone is an art. Doing it on a substance? I don't know. That's got to be tough.
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I don't like my hockey sticks touching other sticks, and I don't like them crossing one another, and I kind of have them hidden in the corner. I put baby powder on the ends. I think it's essentially a matter of taking care of what takes care of you.
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Hockey is a unique sport in the sense that you need each and every guy helping each other and pulling in the same direction to be successful.
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My best friend had a hockey scholarship at Ohio State, so I would get a couple of pairs at the beginning of the season and send them down to him. They practised two hours a day. He'd skate in them for three weeks then ship them back.
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