Gretzky Fact of the Day

1984 - ‘The Great One’, Wayne Gretzky, set a National Hockey League record for consecutive game scoring, as his streak ended at 51 games.

The streak began on October 5, 1983, ending with the L.A. Kings defeating the Edmonton Oilers, 4-2. Gretzky collected 153 points (61 goals and 92 assists) during the run. Gretzky left Edmonton to play for the Kings in 1988.

50 Goals in 39 Games

Today in 1981 Wayne Gretzky did the unthinkable, he scored his 50th goal of the regular season in only the 39th game.
He also set a record with the most 4 goal games in a season, he had 4 by this point, the last 2 in back to back games.
The way the game is played today this will never happen again, this was truly incredible.

Top Ten Greatest LA Kings of All Time

The LA Times finishes off its list of the 10 Greatest LA Kings players of all time and guess who topped the list? Thats right Wayne Gretzky, see the list right here

The Great One says Goodbye

Today in appropriately enough 1999, Wayne Gretzky skated his last regular season game in the NHL. Sadly it was with the NY Rangers but it was great moment in indeed. The Rangers lost in overtime to the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 but the crowd didnt care all they wanted to do was salute the Great One for a career unparalled in hockey history.
He finished his career with 60 NHL records, including all-time scorer (2,857), Most MVP awards (9 Hart Trophies), and the most hat tricks (10) during the playoffs. He led the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL in 1980 and then on to 4 Stanley Cup championships in 5 years before being traded to the Los Angeles Kings after the 1988 season were he helped them to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1993.

Today in Hockey History

1972 - Bobby Hull became the 2nd player to score 600 goals in a career. This was his last season with the NHL Chicago Blackhawks and he score exactly 50 goals for the 1971-72 season.
He would join the Winnipeg Jets of the new WHA the next season.

1982 - Wayne Gretzky becomes 1st NHL to score 200 points in a season

Today in Hockey History

Today is a huge day in hockey/NHL history. On this day in 1994 Wayne Gretzky became the all time leading goal scorer in NHL history with a goal in a game against the Vancouver Canucks.




Also on this day a record was set that will be as hard to top as Gretzky's all time goal lead.
1952 - Bill Mosienko scores three goals in an NHL-record 21 seconds. In the final game of the regular season for both teams, the New York Rangers held a 6-2 lead over the visiting Chicago Black Hawks with one period to go. Just when it appeared the Blueshirts would at least end another playoff-less season on a positive note, the Hawk veteran decided he had other plans. The fans at Madison Square Garden sat in shock as they watched a four-goal lead evaporate and eventually turn into a one-goal loss. The Winnipeg winger led the comeback by averaging a goal every seven seconds in a span of under half-a-minute. Linemate Gus Bodnar set up each tally in the hat trick, giving him the fastest three assists in league history.

Rendez-vous '87

Today is the anniversary of the 1st game of the 2 game series between the Soviets and NHL All Stars in 1987 called Rendez-vous '87.
Both games took place at Le Colisee in Quebec City,Quebec. This replaced the annual NHL All star game in 1987.
The first of the 2 games was on Feb 11 1987 and saw the NHL All Stars get a 4-3 win. For most of the game it should have been the Edmonton Oilers vs the Soviets as Gretzky, Kurri and Anderson did most of the damage scoring and Grant Fuhr held down the goal crease.
Game 2 took place 2 days later and this time the Soviets brought their "A" game and won 5-3 with the line of Valeri Kamensky, Viacheslav Bykov, and Andrei Khomutov doing most of the scoring with help from Slava Fetisov and Igor Larionov.
In these clips from the ESPN coverage, the announcer is former St Louis Blues play by play man Ken Wilson, who is still one of my very favorite hockey announcers, so its fun to hear him call a big game like this, along with Bill Clement.
The CBC coverage was Don Wittman and John Davidson.
Here are the highlights from Game 1. I will post Game 2 tomorrow.