Wayne Gretzky is known as the great one
and is trade from the Edmonton Oilers to
the Los Angeles Kings changed the NHL
forever hi I’m Rebecca Braden and
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
speaking with sportswriter Stephen brunt
about Gretzky’s tears
what made Gretzky the great one there’s
no real precedent for Wayne Gretzky in
hockey and there’s no one who came after
him who plays like him he’s he’s a
one-off he’s like a great musician or a
great artist he imagined the game in
some ways and did that without huge
physical gift and yet you know something
else about him allowed him to play
hockey and to score goals and to set up
goals and to see the pattern of the game
the larger game better than anyone I
think it would ever lived so you could
start by giving us some background as to
the lead-up to Gretzky Strait the
Edmonton Oilers had just won their
fourth Stanley Cup Gretzky was
acknowledged by certainly by hockey fans
as maybe the greatest player who ever
lived Peter Pocklington who owned the
Oilers was in financial trouble he had
issues he was a wheeler dealer in his
own right and he also understood that
Gretzky was going to be he’d lose him
eventually at the end of his contract at
the same time a guy in LA named Bruce
McNall and bought the Los Angeles Kings
he had money or at least he had other
people’s money and he had an idea which
was what if we bring the greatest hockey
player in the world to California to
Hollywood what would happen the title
Gretzky’s tears obviously refers to a
very specific moment in his career the
press conference if you could just kind
of give us some background about that
everybody who was alive then in Canada
remembers there’s a watershed moment you
really remember where you were when you
saw it it was earth-shaking that Gretzky
could be traded and you have to see
someone like him weeping in public
whatever his words said he seemed to be
saying something else by his tears if
you’re a Canadian you had to believe
that he was being torn out of the
country against his will
why would somebody like Wayne Gretzky
ever want to leave Edmonton why would he
ever want to leave a perfect hockey team
why would he ever want to leave us they
say that the trade from Edmonton to LA
changed the face of hockey can you kind
of outline the ripple effects that we’re
still seeing today Bruce McNall his idea
was that you could take the most famous
hockey player in the world and sell them
to people who didn’t know anything about
hockey then you could take that formula
and spread it here there and everywhere
and sell hockey to people who who had no
history with the
or no cultural affinity with the game
you know the fact is it worked in LA
people did pay attention and they did
buy tickets and if the larger America
paid attention but what also came out of
that for the NHL was a new business
philosophy you know hockey would be sold
to people who didn’t know anything about
hockey but because it had this glamour
and the star power now it didn’t matter
that’s how the NHL wound up in Florida
and how it wound up in Texas and how it
wound up in San Jose and it’s definitely
how the Winnipeg Jets wound up in
Phoenix once Gretzky was gone it didn’t
have staying power it didn’t really put
down roots it turned out to be more of a
pyramid scheme than anything else are we
ever going to see another great one I
think we’re gonna keep trying to invent
them because I think it’s it’s a
powerful myth I think we’ve turned
Sidney Crosby into that whether it is
that or not in some ways we need that
story you know we need the next one to
pop up because it reaffirms for us
something about what it is to be
Canadian thank you very much thank you
and is trade from the Edmonton Oilers to
the Los Angeles Kings changed the NHL
forever hi I’m Rebecca Braden and
welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re
speaking with sportswriter Stephen brunt
about Gretzky’s tears
what made Gretzky the great one there’s
no real precedent for Wayne Gretzky in
hockey and there’s no one who came after
him who plays like him he’s he’s a
one-off he’s like a great musician or a
great artist he imagined the game in
some ways and did that without huge
physical gift and yet you know something
else about him allowed him to play
hockey and to score goals and to set up
goals and to see the pattern of the game
the larger game better than anyone I
think it would ever lived so you could
start by giving us some background as to
the lead-up to Gretzky Strait the
Edmonton Oilers had just won their
fourth Stanley Cup Gretzky was
acknowledged by certainly by hockey fans
as maybe the greatest player who ever
lived Peter Pocklington who owned the
Oilers was in financial trouble he had
issues he was a wheeler dealer in his
own right and he also understood that
Gretzky was going to be he’d lose him
eventually at the end of his contract at
the same time a guy in LA named Bruce
McNall and bought the Los Angeles Kings
he had money or at least he had other
people’s money and he had an idea which
was what if we bring the greatest hockey
player in the world to California to
Hollywood what would happen the title
Gretzky’s tears obviously refers to a
very specific moment in his career the
press conference if you could just kind
of give us some background about that
everybody who was alive then in Canada
remembers there’s a watershed moment you
really remember where you were when you
saw it it was earth-shaking that Gretzky
could be traded and you have to see
someone like him weeping in public
whatever his words said he seemed to be
saying something else by his tears if
you’re a Canadian you had to believe
that he was being torn out of the
country against his will
why would somebody like Wayne Gretzky
ever want to leave Edmonton why would he
ever want to leave a perfect hockey team
why would he ever want to leave us they
say that the trade from Edmonton to LA
changed the face of hockey can you kind
of outline the ripple effects that we’re
still seeing today Bruce McNall his idea
was that you could take the most famous
hockey player in the world and sell them
to people who didn’t know anything about
hockey then you could take that formula
and spread it here there and everywhere
and sell hockey to people who who had no
history with the
or no cultural affinity with the game
you know the fact is it worked in LA
people did pay attention and they did
buy tickets and if the larger America
paid attention but what also came out of
that for the NHL was a new business
philosophy you know hockey would be sold
to people who didn’t know anything about
hockey but because it had this glamour
and the star power now it didn’t matter
that’s how the NHL wound up in Florida
and how it wound up in Texas and how it
wound up in San Jose and it’s definitely
how the Winnipeg Jets wound up in
Phoenix once Gretzky was gone it didn’t
have staying power it didn’t really put
down roots it turned out to be more of a
pyramid scheme than anything else are we
ever going to see another great one I
think we’re gonna keep trying to invent
them because I think it’s it’s a
powerful myth I think we’ve turned
Sidney Crosby into that whether it is
that or not in some ways we need that
story you know we need the next one to
pop up because it reaffirms for us
something about what it is to be
Canadian thank you very much thank you
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