Did Gretzky ever get a Game Misconduct?

[Mike Martin]

I remember back in the late 1980's when the NHL made commonplace the 5 minute major for High Sticking which came with an automatic Game Misconduct. I can remember games during that era when non-fighters would get that penalty and it was always a shock to me to see a non-fighter ejected from a game. So I'm wondering, was Wayne Gretzky ever given a Game Misconduct penalty?

 

[Michael Farkas]

Yeah, in the 1993 Campbell Conference Finals...game 6, overtime...the Leafs scored on the power play en route to their first of many Stanley Cups in the expansion era.

Meanwhile, back on earth, I found one: he got slammed for arguing balls and strikes here against Carolina in 1998: http://www.flyershistory.com/cgi-bin/poboxscore.cgi?H19970912

 

[Buck Aki Berg]

Meanwhile, back on earth, I found one: he got slammed for arguing balls and strikes here against Carolina in 1998: http://www.flyershistory.com/cgi-bin/poboxscore.cgi?H19970912

I'm inclined to believe that's a 10-minute misconduct, not a game misconduct.

 

[ONO94]

Nope--he was actually gone for the game against the Canes. I was actually at the game and the game had devolved into a goon fest with the Rangers losing worse than the score indicated. Gretzky was pretty much tired of it all and argued with the ref until he got himself kicked out of the game. You could tell he just wanted to be gone because he wasn't even upset as he skated to the locker room.

 

[Michael Farkas]

I'm inclined to believe that's a 10-minute misconduct, not a game misconduct.

Quite possibly, maybe even probably. I took it from this article:

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/08/08/3093283/decock-gretzky-trade-25-years.html

In terms of actual hockey, Gretzky’s impact on the state was limited. He played in four games in Greensboro in the 1997-98 and 1998-99 seasons for the New York Rangers, going scoreless in three of them -- in one, picking up a game misconduct for arguing -- and recording a goal and two assists in the other. (He was supposed to appear a preseason game in Charlotte in 1991, when he played for the Kings, but he only made it as far as warm-ups. The game was canceled when the ice was unplayable.)

 

[Buck Aki Berg]

Nope--he was actually gone for the game against the Canes. I was actually at the game and the game had devolved into a goon fest with the Rangers losing worse than the score indicated. Gretzky was pretty much tired of it all and argued with the ref until he got himself kicked out of the game. You could tell he just wanted to be gone because he wasn't even upset as he skated to the locker room.

Wow, I've only ever seen coaches and other off-ice staff get booted for arguing (my personal favourite being Larry Robinson flipping off Bill McCreary back in 1998)

 

[reckoning]

There's a story in Ray Scampinello's book about a game he was doing where Gretzky got thrown out with a game misconduct. He had asked him during the pregame skate if he could have an autographed stick for a relative, and Gretzky said he'd give it to him after the game. Gretzky was apparently very angry when he got tossed from the game, and Scampinello thought to himself "So much for the stick", but Gretzky had it delivered to the officials room after the game as promised.

Scampinello is not listed as one of the linsemen in the aforementioned Carolina game, so it couldn't have been that one.