Wayne Gretzky predicts Oilers-Panthers rematch for Stanley Cup
Wayne Gretzky didn’t predict an outcome for this year’s Stanley Cup Finals, but the former Edmonton Oilers and hockey’s all-time Great One does expect his former club will be there in a rematch with the defending champion Florida Panthers.
Appearing on the New Heights podcast with brothers and pro footballers Jason and Travis Kelce, Gretzky said the Oilers “learned a great lesson” in the relatively young, but talent-loaded team’s first Cup final.
“They’ll be a little bit different, a little bit more prepared, and some of the things won’t be surprises off the ice,” he noted.
Gretzky also pointed out that Edmonton will have home-ice advantage in the series — giving them the last line change after a stoppage in play, faceoff circle advantage, and Game 7 in front of boisterous fans on home ice.
“In the playoffs, (Games) four to seven is a big difference,” Gretzky explained.
Gretzky says favourite nickname is the one Alberta gave him, not ‘The Great One’
The interview was recorded before McDavid and the Oilers defeated the Dallas Stars 4-1 Tuesday night in Edmonton to take a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference final, a series Gretzky predicted will need seven games to decide. Game 5 is tonight in Dallas.
The Panthers punched their ticket to the final, their third straight trip, by knocking off the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5 Wednesday night.
Gretzky, dressed in a black sweater from Drake’s October’s Very Own brand featuring his signature No. 99, spoke to the siblings from what appeared to be a St. Louis Blues facility. In 2021, Gretzky and his wife, Janet, a native of St. Louis, bought a house in the Missouri city to be closer to her mother.
Casual sports fans may forget that he played 18 games for the Blues after a trade from the Los Angeles Kings in 1996, but friction with head coach Mike Keenan led to the legend bolting for the New York Rangers in the offseason.
The conversation never once strayed into politics or the many critical things U.S. President Donald Trump, one of Gretzky’s close acquaintances, has publicly said about Travis Kelce’s partner, music megastar Taylor Swift. Most recently, the president posted on Truth Social, “Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,” she’s no longer ‘HOT?’”
Instead, the roughly 45-minute chat was all about hockey and sports in general. Here’s what else No. 99 and the all-star football siblings talked about.
On the records
When he retired in 1999, Gretzky held a mind-boggling 61 official NHL records, and more than a quarter century later, he still holds or shares 55.
Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin claimed one of those, a record once thought unbreakable, when he notched his 895th career regular-season goal in April to surpass Gretzky.
Gretzky continued to be abundantly gracious about passing the greatest goal scorer mantle to the Russian phenom and recounted a personal story from 1989 when he surpassed Gordie Howe’s career points record.
The night before, Gretzky said he told his father, the late Walter Gretzky, that he was feeling “kind of embarrassed” about taking the record from someone he idolized as a player, given the different eras of the game they played in.
“And I’ll never forget my dad saying, ‘Listen, you just have the same dignity and respect that Gordie Howe has for you because he’s truly happy for you, so when somebody breaks your record, you be as classy as Gordie Howe.’”
“I remember I looked at my dad and I said, ‘Can I just enjoy it for a little bit?’”
As for his remaining records, Gretzky told the Kelces the one he cherishes most and “is going to be the hardest to break” is the 50 goals he scored in 39 games in the 1981-82 campaign, his third season. He finished the year with 92, another record widely expected to stand the test of time.
Walter warms up
Gretzky mentioned his father a few times during the interview and revealed that the backyard rink made for him and his brothers each winter wasn’t meant to be a training ground for hockey greatness.
As a toddler, Gretzky said he started skating on a frozen river behind his grandparents’ barn, and by the time he was four, his dad would take him to outdoor rinks where young Wayne would skate tirelessly.
“One day he was so cold that he decided, ‘Look, I’m going to build a rink in the backyard and I can sit in the kitchen and drink my hot tea.’”
So every December, Gretzky said his father would spend hours building a six- or seven-inch ice sheet that would last all winter. An added bonus: he was always left with a healthy green lawn come summer.
What’s up, Doc?
Already with one of the most iconic nicknames in professional sports history — The Great One — it’s easy to forget that Gretzky was briefly bestowed with a different title: the White Tornado.
During his minor hockey days, Gretzky, wearing white gloves, dominated a Quebec City tournament with speed and scoring prowess, leading someone in French media to dub him le Tornade Blanche.
“My dad hated that one. He hated The Great One,” Gretzky admitted.
His personal favourite, however, is Doc, in recognition of his honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta, awarded in 2000.
Gretzky told the Kelces he asked friends to call him Doc because people also did so for Dr. Jerry Buss, the late former owner of the Los Angeles Lakers. In reality, Buss was a legitimate doctoral recipient, having completed a Ph.D in physical chemistry at the University of Southern California before becoming a real estate magnate and an NBA franchise owner.
“My kids even call me Doc,” Gretzky said.
He offered a different version of how he earned the name five years ago on TNT’s The Steam Room.
He recounted being on a plane when one of the flight attendants asked if there was a doctor on board to help attend to a passenger with anxiety, prompting him to hit the call button.
“She goes, ‘Really?’ And I go, ‘Yeah, I’m an honorary doctor.’ She goes, ‘That’s not funny,’ and I said, ‘Well, my goodness, I wouldn’t have said it if I thought the guy was really in trouble.”
Doc was applied, he said, after he told friends on the golf course.
Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.