Ziggy Stardust
Master Debater
It took Gretzky 15 seasons to get to 801 goals, which took 26 seasons for Gordie Howe to reach, and a record that stood since 1980 (Howe's final NHL season, with the Hartford Whalers).
Yes, they did. And don't forget the previous season they'd traded Paul Coffey to get Jimmy Carson back. Just horrendous asset management.As you can see by the names listed, the Kings had some awful team depth in 93-94.
Why wasn't Robert Lang playing the full season that year?
...After breaking that record on March 23rd, 1994, I really believe Wayne just mailed in the rest of the season. He dressed for only eight more games, scoring 1 more goal and going -8. He didn't even bother playing the final three games of the season, presumably secure that Fedorov couldn't catch him in the scoring race!
Nice find. I didn't know that!Didn't WG miss 1993-94's last three-and-change because one of Darryl or Darrin Shannon clipped him (leg injury) during G#81? Not sure which Shannon - per boxscores, both played that game - but it irritated me because another 40-goal season was reachable, even considering the post-802 slump*.
Yeah, spring '94 was a bittersweet time to be a Gretzky fan. Splitting my living arrangements between Vancouver and Toronto that season, I saw a handful of their games, and the spunk and spark of early LA Gretzky teams was gone. As he approached 800 my best friend and I took to watching at a local sports bar, but everything otherwise coolly historic was tempered by a fading recent Cup finalist in a <checks stats> 3-11-5 death spiral that left them six points behind San Jose for eighth after the March 23rd loss. We'd been sure the untested Sharks would fade...but they never did.
*EDIT: found something in the Winnipeg Free Press archives: "...Kings lost Wayne Gretzky with a strained left knee about halfway through the game, but Gretzky could play again before the season is over. After getting one assist yesterday, he holds a 12-point lead in the scoring race..."
Gretzky injured his knee while killing off a penalty with the Jets holding a 3-2 lead. Moving laterally, he jumped to avoid a check and came down awkwardly and limped off the ice. Later, Gretzky said he stepped on the stick of Winnipeg's Darrin Shannon when he landed.
Immediately after the game, Gretzky said the knee was not swollen, but he was limping. But he did not rule out playing in the Kings' final two home games this week. Gretzky has points in 10 consecutive games.
Well, most of them are from the dynasty Oilers team. Of course the team was in a better situation then.Gretzky's 802 goal is such a weird one in his history. If you look back at many of his 'numbers' milestones, such as:
- first NHL goal
- breaks Orr's assists record, break Espo's point record
- 50-in-39
- breaks Espos's 76 goal record
- first player to 200 points
- 50-in-42 (in 1984)
- 1000 points
- 500 goals (autumn '86)
- breaks Howe's all-time assist record (1987-88)
- breaks Howe's all-time points record (Oct. 1989)
- 700 goals (Jan. 1991)
...they all have one thing in common, which is that the team he was playing for won the game and were in a generally 'good' situation when the record occurred (his 2000th point in Oct. 1990 is an exception in that L.A. lost 6-2 to Winnipeg that night, but the Kings were in the middle of 7-wins-in-8-games stretch at that moment).
The 801 goal was at least a big one in that it tied the game in the final minute, but the Kings' season was basically toast already by then. They then lost badly to Vancouver three nights later, in which game Gretzky scored the 802 goal.
The Kings missed the playoffs by 17 points, ten months after being in the Finals. Quite how they managed to do that is still a mystery, but perhaps Barry Melrose has the answer.
Gretzky's 802 goal is such a weird one in his history. If you look back at many of his 'numbers' milestones, such as:
- first NHL goal
- breaks Orr's assists record, break Espo's point record
- 50-in-39
- breaks Espos's 76 goal record
- first player to 200 points
- 50-in-42 (in 1984)
- 1000 points
- 500 goals (autumn '86)
- breaks Howe's all-time assist record (1987-88)
- breaks Howe's all-time points record (Oct. 1989)
- 700 goals (Jan. 1991)
...they all have one thing in common, which is that the team he was playing for won the game and were in a generally 'good' situation when the record occurred (his 2000th point in Oct. 1990 is an exception in that L.A. lost 6-2 to Winnipeg that night, but the Kings were in the middle of 7-wins-in-8-games stretch at that moment).
The 801 goal was at least a big one in that it tied the game in the final minute, but the Kings' season was basically toast already by then. They then lost badly to Vancouver three nights later, in which game Gretzky scored the 802 goal.
The Kings missed the playoffs by 17 points, ten months after being in the Finals. Quite how they managed to do that is still a mystery, but perhaps Barry Melrose has the answer.
Barry Melrose was an idiot?
Nothing wrong with the 802 goal, but a couple things come to mind. The Kings were terrible by then so it is a little anti-climatic. Also, this goal wasn't the reason Gretzky was thought to be better than Howe. No doubt by 1994 people likely established this by then unlike in 1989 when he passed him in points. I feel that in 1989 it came down to basically saying "Okay, now we can start calling him the greatest............" where as 1994 we were doing that by then. I have no idea what McLean - a generally good goalie - was doing way out of position there. Great pass by Marty though, so that might be the reason but he really over committed to the shot.
Side note, a lot of Gretzky's milestone goals were into empty nets. This one sort of was. His 50-in-39 was. His 500th goal was and one of the goals to keep his 51 game point streak going quite deep into it was an empty net goal in Winnipeg with about 10 seconds left. The net Gretzky scored 802 on was on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame last week when I was there.
Gretzky was 33 years old when he broke that record.
Ovechkin is 33 years old now.
Three more 50-goal seasons to reach that number of goals, ...
FIVE more 50-goal seasons to pass Gretz's career total.
Yep. Also, his 500th goal and his final hat-trick were against the Canucks.Also something similar to many Gretzky milestones is that they were against the Canucks. His first goal, 100th, 200th, 802, several others, all against Vancouver.
Yep. Also, his 500th goal and his final hat-trick were against the Canucks.
Would it be fair to say that Gretzky breaking Howe's goals record was similar to Emmitt Smith breaking Walter Payton's rushing yards record? The reason I say this is that it was something we knew for a long time that would happen. I think the only difference is that with Emmitt even he will admit it didn't make him better than Payton and there was always that thing hanging over about Barry Sanders being a lock to break the record if he didn't retire early. With Gretzky I am pretty sure most people already had him ahead of Howe by 1994.