Gretzky Praise

[SmellOfVictory]

Well..... Better to offer praise everywhere then make youtube videos with his Stanley Cup rings and how he is better then Lebron or Kobe like Jordan. That is embarrassing.

Gretzky, Howe, Orr... That's how you act if you are the greatest. Not like Barroid, Clemens, Jordan.... Etc.

If you are that great you don't need to brag.

You don't have to be one extreme or the other. "I think he's a great player" is a perfectly acceptable answer, without going into superlatives about how every player is "the best xxxx".

 

[Epsilon]

Gretzky once tabbed Paul Kariya as yet another guy who could break his records.

 

[mban]

Last summer, in reference to Kopitar, mentioned Toews as the second best player in the league:
http://frozenroyalty.net/2014/06/06...ight-now-is-the-third-best-player-in-the-nhl/


I suppose there's even some room to argue that he was saying Kopitar was third behind Crosby and Toews, but was not ranking Crosby and Toews.

He said last year in another interview that he sees Toews as the 1B behind Crosby:

"I think Crosby is the best player in the game, I don't think it's even a question," Gretzky said. "Now if you're Chicago and you've got Toews, I don't think there's anybody in the league they'd trade him for, except maybe Crosby. He's a pretty good 1B."

(This is the same interview where he said he'd like to play on the Blackhawks with Kane.)

He also called Toews a "modern-day Trottier" in this video from 2010 and in 2011, he mentioned that his son went to Shattuck-St.Mary's for one year:

"And he still tells me to this day, and there’s been a lot of great players that have gone through there, that the most popular and the most well liked and one of the best players ever to go through St. Mary’s-Shattuck was Jonathan Toews."

That's all I can find on Toews.

 

[Pi]

Gretzky thinks everyone can break his records, just being modest and not realizing that the game has changed so much since the days he played.

 

[RattsSSV]

Yes he did. Straight up. Gretzky is the assassin of all assassins. Regular season or playoffs he never, ever let up. Gave it 100% all the time trying to score... Vs The Jets in the third period of a nothing game up 7-2 or in Game 7 1993 vs Leafs.

Just because he wasn't an a-hole does not mean Gretzky wasn't competitive as a starving wolverine.

Not to derail the thread, but the early 80's Oilers were known for coasting late in the season once they locked up a playoff spot. Gretzky has mentioned how he could have had more points if he (and the boys) tried harder.

 

[boompuffboom]

so what if hes generous with his praise.

the guy is a living legend and an ambassador to our game. Let him speak out about his fellow sportsmen!

 

[Bending and Tending]

Gretzky thinks everyone can break his records, just being modest and not realizing that the game has changed so much since the days he played.

So are you saying Gretzky is modest, or are you saying that he's delusional enough to think that anyone can break his records and hasn't realized the game has changed since he played?

 

[Ducks in a row]

Gretzky once tabbed Paul Kariya as yet another guy who could break his records.

 

[Frank Garrett]

He is a chronic reverse-jinx artist and a sociopath.

 

[zombie kopitar]

That Kariya/Selanne video is a good example of really what he's saying "If they were playing in 1982 they would break the records, no question about it"
I think he typically is trying to romanticize the notion that all these guys would tear it up in a high scoring era too

Selanne and Kariya did have GOAT chemistry fwiw. Better than the Sedins or Gretz and Kurri

 

[Perfect_Drug]

I had the privilege of watching both Jordan and Gretzky play live.

I kid you not, Jordan doesn't look like a person on the court. He looks like CG.

Everyone jumps, but Jordan just stays in the air a bit longer. Jordan just moved a little bit faster than anyone, and was able to pull of moves like he belonged in Cirque du Soleil.


Gretzky was borderline invisible. He just was in front of everyone all the time.

 

[Kranix]

Wayne once called his broccoli cheese a fierce competitor, a great ambassador for our game, and probably the best hockey player in the world.

 

[cgf]

Someone needs to start doing some ads with Wayne just randomly turning up and hyping people while they do the most mundane things.

"Just look at the heart with which he spreads that peanut butter, it's easy to see why little Max is one of the great PP&J makers of all time and someone who can break my records..."

 

[mban]

Whoops, I spoke too soon. Here's more Gretzky on Toews:

"There’s no question he’s one of the most special players the game has even seen, not even just in this era, but of all time," Gretzky said of Toews. "I hate making comparisons [becuase] each and every guy is his own person, but he’s the closest player we’ve seen come along since Mark Messier in the sense that he’s really smart and good defensively and he’s not your typical 60-goal scorer. But come playoff time, you’re going to look to him and lean on him to score those big goals in crucial situation, a lot like Mark did. I think there’s no question the comparison to how they play in big games is so similar. That's what makes Toews so unique: The bigger the game, the better he seems to play, and the bigger the goals he seems to score."

 

[BoHorvat 53]

That Kariya/Selanne video is a good example of really what he's saying "If they were playing in 1982 they would break the records, no question about it"
I think he typically is trying to romanticize the notion that all these guys would tear it up in a high scoring era too

Selanne and Kariya did have GOAT chemistry fwiw. Better than the Sedins or Gretz and Kurri

Sedins have had the best chemistry in the league. No one can top two twins. The **** they do, there is literally never a missed pass between the two.

 

[zombie kopitar]

Sedins have had the best chemistry in the league. No one can top two twins. The **** they do, there is literally never a missed pass between the two.

ok maybe they do in fact have better chemistry.
However Selanne and Kariya were so much better in their primes as individual talents that they were in fact a greater tandem together. Their speed alone makes them better and I think this debate has happened before and everyone who isn't a Canucks fan agrees.
Not trying to derail this thread though....just show me Gretzky saying the Sedins had better chemistry tnan him and Jari

 

[authentic]

On MacDavid:

“He’s as good as I’ve seen in the last 30 years, the best player to come into the league in the last 30 years,†said Gretzky, who dominated the NHL from 1979 to 1999, “the best to come along since (Mario) Lemieux and (Sidney)

On Crosby:

“I don’t think there's any question Sidney Crosby is the best all-around player in the game,†Gretzky told ESPN.

On Kopitar:

"I think Anze Kopitar, right now, is the third-best player in the National Hockey League, only behind [Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney] Crosby and [Chicago Blackhawks center Jonathan] Toews, and he’s getting better every game,†said Gretzky, who played for the Kings from 1988-1995."

On Zetterberg:

"“I think Zetterberg is the best player in the game (at his age),'' Gretzky told NHL.com. “He's been so physically beat up from the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Olympics, all that goes with that, but he's just very special. I think he's the best Swedish player they've ever put into the National Hockey League, and there has been a lot of great ones, from (Borje) Salming to (former Red Wing Nicklas) Lidstrom.''

It's funny how he said that about Zetterberg, then later called Peter Forsberg the greatest player in NHL history.

 

[Quinning]

Wayne Gretzky once told Bill Clement that Peter Forsberg had told him that Simon Gagne was the purest scorer he'd ever played with.

 

[DearDiary]

The guy is out of touch with reality. I'd understand if he said if someone could be better than him, but he says they will break his records instead.

 

[TheFinnishTrap]

Someone needs to start doing some ads with Wayne just randomly turning up and hyping people while they do the most mundane things.

"Just look at the heart with which he spreads that peanut butter, it's easy to see why little Max is one of the great PP&J makers of all time and someone who can break my records..."

This would be hilarious

 

[Frank Garrett]

Someone needs to start doing some ads with Wayne just randomly turning up and hyping people while they do the most mundane things.

"Just look at the heart with which he spreads that peanut butter, it's easy to see why little Max is one of the great PP&J makers of all time and someone who can break my records..."

They should hire him to hype UFC fights.

 

[sepHF]

Gretzky on Hemsky:

“He’s one of the elite players in the game. His skill is as good as anybody in the National Hockey League. He might be the best passer in the game. He sees the open guys as well or better than anybody at this level. I think he’s one of the best players in the game.”

http://www.iihf.com/home-of-hockey/news/news-singleview/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=6869&cHash=93aff59b1e1696385f63e94ff55a0f51

 

[Mc5RingsAndABeer]

You don't dominate like Jordan did without being a raging ********* and insanely competitive gambling addict. Gretzky's hockey's great one, but he didn't dominate like Jordan did during the strongest era in his sports history.

LeBron has dominated as much as Jordan without being an asshat. And before you bring up the rings, LeBron doesn't have the Pippens/Kerrs/Rodmans around him the same way Jordan did. Pippen was a top5 player in the NBA.

It's a result of domination, but the gap between Gretzky and the #2 of his era was at least as massive at the gap between Jordan and his #2, and I don't think Jordan ever annihilated the field the way Gretzky did in his best years. I could see someone coming along and being as great as Jordan. Gretzky, not so much. Not in my lifetime.

LeBron is already a better player than Jordan.

 

[Giterdun21]

LeBron has dominated as much as Jordan without being an asshat. And before you bring up the rings, LeBron doesn't have the Pippens/Kerrs/Rodmans around him the same way Jordan did. Pippen was a top5 player in the NBA.



LeBron is already a better player than Jordan.

DWade was absolutely a top 5 player for most of the time LeBron spent in Miami... the knock on that team was it's amazing lack of depth. Honestly a lot of people felt he was the 2nd best player in the league until Durant really stepped up and Wade aged a bit.

 

[ozzie]

A bit off topic but

In 1992 when the NBA had its first ever Dream Team for the Olympic Basket ball. All the players were interviewed about their chances of winning. All the players except 1, were pretty humble. They talked highly of the competition and the honour of playing at the Olympics, the usual PR talk.

All but one player.

When Charles Barkley was interviewed he basically said (loose translation here) "They're dead" "We're going to kill them, they have no chance".

Would you prefer the humble legend Gretzky to tell it like it is? no one is going to touch his or Mario's level for a long time.