Wayne Gretzky Quotes

You'll never catch me bragging about goals, but I'll talk all you want about my assists.

The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it.

A good hockey player plays where the puck is.

A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.

No matter who you are, we're creatures of habit.

The better your habits are, the better they will be in pressure situations.

I couldn't beat people with my strength;

I don't have a hard shot; I'm not the quickest skater in the league. My eyes and my mind have to do most of the work.

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

The Power of WHO provides great lessons about how to succeed in business and in life. If you surround yourself with quality people and great friends, the sky's the limit.

I think that from the time you start playing sports as a child you see that your responsibility to your team is to play the best that you can play as an individual... and yet, not take anything away from being part of a team.

It doesn't matter what I think. It doesn't matter what other people think. You have to get on the ice and participate and play and the best team wins.

Sometimes people ask, 'Are hockey fights real?' I say, 'If they weren't, I'd get in more of them.

The biggest difference between L.A. and Edmonton was that instead of people looking at me I was looking at them.

I played everything. I played lacrosse, baseball, hockey, soccer, track and field. I was a big believer that you played hockey in the winter and when the season was over you hung up your skates and you played something else.

I don't like my hockey sticks touching other sticks, and I don't like them crossing one another, and I kind of have them hidden in the corner. I put baby powder on the ends. I think it's essentially a matter of taking care of what takes care of you.

Thankfully, in my youth I had the best financial advisor a son could ask for: my dad Walter. When I got that first signing bonus in 1978, Dad took my cheque, announced, 'This is what we're going to do,' and bought an annuity with it.

I think sports for kids is the greatest thing in the world because it teaches you how to share, about winning and losing and pressure. But I don't think you should force your kid to become a professional athlete.

I'm probably the only guy in hockey who can win a scoring title and everybody is saying I had a bad year. I don't worry about it.

One of the key qualities that you need to be a great hockey player is fantastic anticipation and feel for the game - if you know where the puck is going before it is hit, that is half the battle.

Not doing it is certainly the best way to not getting it

When you're playing an exhibition, you're kind of letting everyone get an opportunity.

The last year I was playing, I asked the stick boy to get me a Diet Coke and he said, "Really?" But I always had one on the bench because that's what I did in 1979 when there wasn't Gatorade. If you needed energy you went and got a Snickers or a Kit Kat. Nobody knew any better.

When I broke into professional hockey at 17 I was told that I was too small and too slow and I wouldn't make the NHL. Now it's kind of flip-flopped and the sense is I can't be a good coach because I was a great athlete.

Lifting the Stanley Cup for the first time.

There's nothing like it. It's the greatest story. In my era, they used to say you couldn't be a superstar without winning one. I remember thinking when I lifted it: "Now they can't say that about me."

My best friend had a hockey scholarship at Ohio State, so I would get a couple of pairs at the beginning of the season and send them down to him. They practised two hours a day. He'd skate in them for three weeks then ship them back.

When I played in a 21-team league, there were six or seven goalies who were just average, and the equipment and pads were smaller. I came in the right era. I played for the right team. It was all speed, and creativity and imagination.

Most players go where the puck is. I go where the puck will be.

People in general want to build somebody up and then try to knock them down.

They always root for the underdog.

I knew at a young age, whether I was playing baseball or hockey or lacrosse, that my teammates were counting on me, whether it be to strike the last batter out in a baseball game or score a big goal in a hockey game.

It's just amazing how many companies suddenly want you to hold up their products after you've held up the Stanley Cup.

I really wanted to write a book [99: Stories of the Game] on the tradition and history of the league, where kids can pick it up and read it and learn things and say, "Geez, I didn't know that. That's pretty cool."

It's an honour and a thrill and a privilege just to play in the NHL.

What you want to do with your best players is, it doesn't matter how many goals and assists they get, but when they get goals and assists. The best players get them at the most important times, and that's when we need those guys to come through.

I have absolutely no complaints about my life. But people think I got handed everything, all this kind of fell in my lap, that I was just God-gifted with all this talent. I wanted people to realize it's a lot tougher than just waking up one day and you're in the NHL.

I wasn't naturally gifted in terms of size and speed; everything I did in hockey I worked for, and that's the way I'll be as a coach.

Listen, everything I have in my life is because of the NHL and because of hockey, and I love the game and I loved every minute of being a player, I loved coaching, I loved being involved in the NHL.

He brings something special. I don't know what it is, but if you ask him, you couldn't understand his answer.

Competitive spirit is still at a premium. The more you win, the better you play, the more money you make, so they all have that in mind.

We're in a tough situation because of teenage children, and then we have a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old, so my family and my responsibilities is sort of a juggle.

When people come up to me and say, "I was at your Game 7 in the playoffs in Toronto," or, "I saw your first goal in the NHL," that triggers memories. But I don't sit around my kitchen table and tell my kids, "You know, one year I got 92 goals."

At the end of the day everybody lost. We almost crippled our industry. It was very disappointing what happened.

The game is played out of instinct, but everyone on the ice has habits - good and bad. So the key to the game is to exploit the bad habits of your opponent.

People talk about skating, puck handling and shooting, but the whole sport is angles and caroms, forgetting the straight direction the puck is going, calculating where it will be directed, factoring in all the interruptions. Basically, my whole game is angles.

It's really hard. And it's harder today because of the salary cap. It starts in September at training camp - getting every guy on the same page, being as mentally and physically as focused as you can be. Then in April and May, you basically spend eight weeks practising, watching video and playing games. That's your life.

One hundred percent of shots not taken don't go in.

It's easier to lose than to win.

In one sense we are a favorite because we won a gold medal in 2002.

The best players in the game want the responsibility of being the best player. The reality is the game has changed from now back to '87. It's a lot tighter checking. The players are better today. So, that makes it harder for him just in that fact. We can't rely solely on Mario [Lemieux] to carry this team. We're not relying on that.

Ninety percent of hockey is mental and the other half is physical.

Hullie's a lot like a garbage can. You step on the pedal with your foot and the top opens up.

It's kind of ironic when I broke in at 17, I was told I was too small, too slow and I wouldn't make the NHL