One87
Registered User
- Jan 4, 2013
- 130
- 2
I mean Gretzky's last >100 point season was in Lidstrom's rookie season. So it's not like he saw Gretzky in his prime.
I see it similar to how Lidstrom describes it. Mario had better individual talent. He was much bigger, faster and stronger than Wayne. Even Wayne admitted in an interview that I saw once that Mario had more pure hockey talent than him. Wayne obviously had tremendous talent too but the thing that always made him special to me was his hockey IQ. Wayne was like Einstein on skates.
Nevermind the fact that he scored, it's ridiculous how he was able to protect the puck from his blue line to bottom of the other teams' faceoff circle while being obstructed literally every stride.
I'm going to start calling Lidstrom captain obvious.
It used to piss me off to see Mario get players hanging off him like that while Wayne never had that, people would pull the ******** of "Wayne was elusive!!" no, Wayne had people that would pummel the crap out of people that did that to him so they kept their distance to a degree, Mario didn't because he was 6'4" on a **** team and Marty McSorely didn't like him.
“Gretzky saw the ice better than any human being I ever saw play hockey. Until someone comes along he was absolutely the smartest hockey player ever. People ask me ‘Why couldn’t anyone hit him?’ You can’t hit what you can’t catch – not that he was fast, but he was so smart. Even when he lost a step when he got older, mentally he was just as sharp.” - Phil Esposito
Defensemen found Gretzky a most elusive target. Fellow Hockey Hall of Famer Denis Potvin compared attempting to hit Gretzky to "wrapping your arms around fog. You saw him but when you reached out to grab him your hands felt nothing, maybe just a chill."
Who is #9?