Wayne Gretzky: The Most Famous NHL Player

Superior Essays
The National Hockey League (NHL) was founded in 1917. This league consisted of six teams, called the original six. These teams were the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, and the New York Rangers. These teams played for twenty five years until the leagues first expansion. Today, there are thirty teams in the NHL. There are six players on the ice, one center, two wings, two defenseman, and a goalie. This is one line, and each team usually consists of three lines. There are always those few, rare players who stand out and are marked in history. The most influential National Hockey League (NHL) players of the last half of the twentieth century are, Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, and Gordie …show more content…
With his time at the Oilers, the dominant team of the 1980's, they exploited some of the rules in the game. The most impactful thing was, in hockey, you can get a penalty, and when you do, it's two minutes in the penalty box. Your team plays a man down, four versus five. If the other team then gets a penalty, it turns into a four on four, giving more skating room. The Oilers loved four on four, having some of the most talented skaters in the NHL, and the greatest player of all time, Gretzky. Their offense was unstoppable with the opened space of the ice. The NHL had to step in a change the rules, so if there are penalties on both teams they offset. A part of the game Gretzky him exploited was the space behind the net, later to be called "Gretzky's office". With his puck handling and stick skills, behind the net game him the best chance to operate and set up a chance to score for his team. Later, the NHL expanded the space behind the net, making Gretzky less comfortable back there. It s going to hurt me, no question about it. I've got to figure out a way to work with it. "It's definitely an advantage now to the defense, no question. I used to use, the net as a decoy and that's been taken away from me." (Cite EBSCO). Then there was a trade, the trade. "Wayne Gretzky coming to Los Angeles in 1988 via the trade that is 25 years old today was an earth-shattering moment in the hockey world. Not only did it have a major impact on how the NHL was viewed and followed in the United States, it was a seminal moment in the hockey participation boom of the early 1990s in America." (Cite EBSCO). The greatest hockey player moving to a place that has never seen snow before, s place where hockey thought to be never played. "For him to come to Los Angeles was a head-turner. He was going to Hollywood, to the second- or third-largest city in North America. It was absolutely catalytic,"

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