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"We need old-time hockey, you grab the puck and go and that is where you need your creativity." - Wayne Gretzky
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Gretzky puts emphasis
on fun
By Alan Adams | NHL.com columnist
November 18, 2003
TORONTO - If it were up to Wayne Gretzky, there would be changes to the way minor hockey is played to put more fun in the game.
"I think it is the same in every sport ... everything seems to be so organized," Gretzky said Monday while promoting the release of "Ultimate Gretzky", his new DVD. "You say to six or seven kids go down the street and play pick-up hockey and each kid will say which position should I play?
"I think we have lost that imagination. Guys like (Jean) Beliveau and Bobby Orr used to get on the ice and play. But kids don't do that. I am always telling (Hockey Canada President Bob) Nicholson that we are too structured, especially for the kids. You see left wingers going up and down the wings. Defenseman are supposed to stay behind the blue line.
"We need old-time hockey, you grab the puck and go and that is where you need your creativity. You can teach kids how to check, but you can't teach a guy to score 75 goals. Either a guy has a knack for that or he doesn't. We've lost that creativity and that starts with our youth, kids 10 and 11. They should be out there playing pond hockey."
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As a youngster growing up in Brantford, Ontario. Gretzky said he went to a summer hockey camp once, and lasted a day before he asked to go home. Today, kids starting at age 8 have as many as 14 tryouts in the spring for teams they will play on the next fall. And then they have summer leagues in addition to summer training camps. If it were up to Gretzky, the sticks and skates would be shelved for the summer in favor of baseball bats, soccer cleats or tennis rackets.
"I think every sport helps hockey. I played box lacrosse, a little soccer. I ran some track and field and I think you get a hunger to play. I never played in the summer. I am not saying this to be critical because hockey has done a lot of great things for this country, but sometimes there is too much. You see hockey tournaments in July for 14-year-olds."
Gretzky was asked what he would do if he coached a team of 10-year-olds.
"I would let them all chase the puck. We'd have lots of pucks on the ice at practice. Glen Sather's and Mike Keenan's theory of practice was every guy was skating with a puck. It is one thing to skate and do drills but it is another to skate and do the drills with a puck. You learn how to handle the puck.
"Today, kids ... well the left winger should stay on the left wing. At that age, they should chase the puck and learn the creativity and the imagination of the game. We used to play a team when we were kids and they used to beat us every year in the championship game and my dad would always say they were a great team, but they were too structured. We had four kids from our team that made the NHL and from that team there were none."
Gretzky also held court on a number of other topics:
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Not even the great Guy Lafleur was immune to the clutching and grabbing of the game.
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On remarks by Boston Joe Thornton that he thought about retiring rather than fight through the clutching and grabbing -- "It is hard for me to say because I am not playing. It is hard for me to base what today is about. But I will say this. Bobby Hull had to fight through clutching and grabbing. Guy Lafleur did it. I had to do it. It will always be part of out game. People get paid a lot of money to score goals and then there are guys who are paid a lot to stop those guys. ... I am not trying to compare what Joe said. Mario said it before. Brett (Hull) has said it before and I have said it, 'We have to figure out a way to stop the clutching and grabbing.' But that is just part of the game."
On opening up the game -- "I do not know if you can open up the game. When we came in the whole focus was on winning 7-6. We did not comprehend a 2-1 game. Kids coming in now are so aware of playing defensive hockey. They are taught (defensive hockey) in bantam hockey and in junior hockey and checking becomes more prevalent today than when I was playing. I think the goalies are better today as a whole. Even your weaker teams have great goalies and that makes it harder to score. It used to be that they would put the worst skater in net or the least talented player in net but now athletes are goalies and it makes it harder to score. I am a traditionalist and I think you have to keep the red line, stay five-on-five. I like the size of the rinks.
About his DVD -- "As a player you do not do something like this, but now that I am retired, I can sit back and reminisce about playing as a kid, playing in the world junior tournament as a 16-year-old and playing my final game as a Ranger. ... I can remember being 6-years-old and playing my first game as a kid and all of a sudden here you are at 37 years, 38 years old and it is over. What happened? When you step away from the game it is tough and it is a process that everybody has to go through. People say you played 19 or 20 years but the reality is I have played 35 years really."
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