"Can't hit Gretzky"

[Rhiessan71]

It's funny. Today it always seems like whenever a player makes a big open-ice hit on an opposing player, he ends up having to fight someone on the opposing player's team...even if the hit is clean.

I'm not talking about a scrum ensuing that results in a lot of yapping and pushing that may or may not result in a couple guys throwing down.
I'm talking about a guy that's not looking for permission or waiting for you to be oblige him. He's coming in swinging and not in just the literal sense.

Unless you mean that clean hits seem to draw more attention today than they did back then, I would def agree with that.

 

[jkrx]

And there lies the truth that the Gretzky haters don't like to bring up. All star players had someone look out for them. Yzerman had Probert. Let's find a time someone threw a cheap shot at Yzerman? Didn't happen. Bossy had Gillies. People didn't even try to take liberties with Bossy. Clarke had the Broad Street Bullies, although he would have deserved each and every punch thrown at him since he was a cheap shot artist. Lindros and Lemieux didn't really have goons look out for them. For starters Lindros was one of the best fighters in NHL history. Lemieux wasn't, but he was a big boy and could handle himself a bit better. Plus he was a bigger target because he was.........bigger.

What? He got cheapshotted alot of times most notably by Maguire.

Lindros had goons. Lemieux had Stevens, Caufield, Jennings and lots of middleweight goons or dirty players helping him.

 

[lextune]

Bossy had Gillies. People didn't even try to take liberties with Bossy.

Not exactly sure what you meant by 'liberties', but Bossy was like a human heavy bag in front of the net with the crosschecks to the back he took.

 

[Goalie Guru*]

Dave Semenko was a tough player but the way this story gets told, people act as if he was far and away the most fearsome enforcer in the history of the NHL—like he would murder your family if you so much as looked at #99.

Semenko wasn't any scarier than a guy like Bob Probert in Detroit, and yet people still knocked down Steve Yzerman. Players like Denis Potvin or, say, Joel Otto were not going to avoid hitting Gretzky just because they might have to answer to Semenko and McSorely. They didn't hit Gretzky because it was nearly impossible to catch him. And this was true long after Semenko had retired.

100% correct reply. No need to read any further. Clark Gillies and others were not afraid of Semenko.

 

[Rhiessan71]

100% correct reply. No need to read any further. Clark Gillies and others were not afraid of Semenko.

It wasn't about how tough Semeko was in relation to other goons/enforcers, it's that he was actually on the ice when Gretzky was most of the time and any incident would be dealt with quite swiftly.

 

[Ol' Jase]

"The only way you can check Gretzky is to hit him when he is standing still singing the national anthem." - Harry Sinden

 

[Dark Shadows]

Bossy had Gillies. People didn't even try to take liberties with Bossy.

Bossy probably was cross checked in the back more than any player I have seen in a long time.

 

[Normand Lacombe]

Gretzky had his head down, clean hit by McCreary.

 

[Normand Lacombe]

Lindros had goons. Lemieux had Stevens, Caufield, Jennings and lots of middleweight goons or dirty players helping him.

Who? Daniel LaCroix and Scott Daniels didn't stop other players from running Lindros.

 

[Normand Lacombe]

Bossy probably was cross checked in the back more than any player I have seen in a long time.

Yep, the reason he retired at the age of 30 while still in the prime of his career. Makes me wonder what kind of numbers he could have accumulated if he didn't have back problems and played 5-6 more years

 

[Big Phil]

Are you serious?

Yeah I'm serious. But Bossy did play a different style than Gretzky too. He would stand in front of the net, pay the price and get his licks in there like anyone wanting to score goals would which would contribute to him getting knocked down. But you didn't see Bossy "run" very often either. Esposito paid the price, Ciccarelli paid the price. Most goal scorers of that kind had to. Gretzky was just simply smarter than anyone else and could rely on his head rather than get his nose dirty.

 

[Big Phil]

What? He got cheapshotted alot of times most notably by Maguire.

Lindros had goons. Lemieux had Stevens, Caufield, Jennings and lots of middleweight goons or dirty players helping him.

And do you remember what happened to Maguire after he and Yzerman fought? Probert was on the ice, didn't like it and stalked Maguire in that classic brawl like a pitbull. Probert was dying to get after him even knocking Tom Barrasso's mask off with a punch. Then Probert found Maguire under a pile and gave him one punch really hard. Maguire lay there like a slug after that. Yzerman had a bodyguard don't kid yourself. Plus his style was a little more tenacious than Gretzky, still clean, but Yzerman got a little more involved physically.

Lindros didn't really need goons though. And who were the goons? Lemieux got help in the 1990s, but rarely had any in the 1980s.

Gretzky in many ways was a lot like Sakic. A gentleman on the ice, never fought either, had league wide respect, and never dished a cheap shot out and rarely got one back. Sakic had never been a target either in his career and no one complains about how he never got hit. Is it because it is just easier to pick on Gretzky? Why do people ignore the other gentlemenly superstars who were left alone on the cheap shot front as well?

Bossy probably was cross checked in the back more than any player I have seen in a long time.

But it's also how he got a lot of goals too. Like I said, different style from Gretzky which would contribute to him getting more banged up. But I wouldn't call a cross check in front of the net getting run either.

 

[Scott1980]

How about Lafleur?

Did he get hit much when he was in his prime and fast (74/75 - 81/82)?

I got this picture in a book at home and Gretzky is almost being drapped by a Whaler player. Another pic shows him being hit while in front of the net. Gretzky says in the caption: This is what would happen if I set up in front of the net instead of behind it!

 

[NorthStar4Canes]

No doubt he was "protected" on-ice as may stars were then (by enforcer, not NHL conspiracy), but I think "can't hit him" refers to his elusiveness etc. I thought I read Gretzky attributed his ability to dodge, deflect, and elude hits, in large part, to playing box lacrosse growing up as well. He would have been an average-size and average-speed player in that too.

I can believe that, having grown-up playing both way back then. My memory is of getting hit a LOT more playing box lacrosse, both with bodies and sticks. It was harder to avoid it. There's also a wider degree of skating skill/ability and mobility between players than running ability/mobility, and if you're a great skater, it's easier to avoid getting hit on the ice (if you keep your head up) than when playing boxla. If he developed the great survival instincts to do that on his feet, combining them with a good-to-great skating ability would make him the master of it on the rink, which he was.

 

[bottomofthefoodchain]

What about this one? He got knocked the ******* out!

 

[mobilus]

When Gretzky was 6 he played contact hockey against 10 year olds. Every stage of his life, it was always, "Sure, he dominated those kids, but that won't happen when he's in Midget. Then it was "Sure, but wait until he gets to Junior, he won't be pulling that hot dog stuff there. Then, "Sure, but wait until he plays against pros." When Gretzky reached the NHL, there was a lot of fanfare. A lot of doubt he could withstand the physical play of mature men who were the best.

He came into the NHL like a ghost. People tried to hit him, they tried to run him into the boards, they tried to catch him in open ice with his head down. They tried, tried, tried. When they found the couldn't, then began the myth among fans and media that they weren't allowed to hit him.... that Gretzky was league protected property or something. Gary Suter drilled him from behind in the '91 Canada Cup. Suter wasn't jumped by five guys, he wasn't targeted back in the NHL... nothing.

Gretzky did not work the corners cycling the puck, he did not try to power his way through two defensemen, he did not cut through open ice with his head down. He played in the NHL the way he played against those 10 year olds back when he was a kid. His methods were successful then, and stayed successful his entire career. I'm sure those 10 year olds got just as pissed off as Denis Potvin.

 

[habsjunkie2*]

You were definitely allowed to hit him, provided you were prepared to deal with Semenko and most likely the whole Oiler bench coming to rip your head off right after

The interviews you speak of are players talking about how hard it was to actually hit him.
Denis Potvin, who was a mean SoB and until Stevens came along, was widely regarded as one of the hardest hitters in the league, still talks about how utterly frustrated he got trying to nail Gretzky.

I watched as much of Gretzky as I could back then and I saw him take a couple of partial hits now and then, never really catching much of him.
Except for once when a guy named McCreary, who had like a dozen games played, absolutely destroyed Gretz along the blueline.
As the story goes, McCreary never played another shift in the NHL after.



Without a doubt in my mind, Gretzky was easily the most aware, most deceptive and most elusive player I ever saw.

Still spewing this nonsense?

Incorrect. McCreary had a brief NHL career because he was a marginal pro, not because he hit Gretzky. He definitely played another game in the NHL after that hit.

I mean what do you think his own coach benched him after it? He played the rest of that game too.

Correct.

Which further fuels the "not allowed to hit Gretzky"-theories. I however believe there is a half truth to the stories. It's pretty obvious that a league would try to protect someone like Gretzky. Money comes first, at all times.



No he didn't.

You too?

 

[David Bruce Banner]

One of the times he took a serious cheap shot and was injured (and some would argue, never the same again) was in the Canada Cup in '91 on a hit from behind by Gary Suter.

Canada Cup teams, while not without some tough players, did lack protector goons.

 

[Ogopogo*]

What about this one? He got knocked the ******* out!

As the story goes, Dave Taylor never played another shift in the nhl after....

 

[Big Phil]

One of the times he took a serious cheap shot and was injured (and some would argue, never the same again) was in the Canada Cup in '91 on a hit from behind by Gary Suter.

Canada Cup teams, while not without some tough players, did lack protector goons.

Gretzky did a good job at calming the storm in between Games 1 & 2 of that final. He stated that its far more important to win the game than anything else. He even went as far to let Suter off the hook by saying "a couple of our guys play with him and by no means is he a dirty player". Those "guys" would have been Fleury and MacInnis who were teammates of Suter on Calgary. I'm sure Gretzky just wanted them to win, and in his abscence this was another time when Messier took a team and led them to victory

 

[Fredrik_71]

One thing is clear though. No one took a cheap shot at Gretzky (or any other star player) and had it easy afterwards. The policing by the players them self was a big difference back then.

/Cheers

 

[RewBicks]

Agreed but you have to also understand that the younger folk asking about this obviously weren't around or were too young to actually understand how brutal the game was back then in the 80's and especially the 70's.
Unlike today, if you took a run at a star player back then, a guy like Semenko would make you answer the bell whether you wanted to or not and in the case of Gretzky, you would be lucky if both benches didn't clear.
There was no talking or shoving going on, Semenko would have his gloves off on the other side of the ice and you better be prepared to defend yourself because he was coming in swinging.

A sizable portion of NHL players (and especially the ones throwing big hits in the first place) just aren't as afraid of enforcers as you'd like to think (if at all). It's just not that hard to avoid getting hurt in a fight, even against a much larger player, if that's your aim. I speak from experience.

Gretzky was hard to line up, and it's not hard to imagine why: nobody has ever seen the ice like him.

 

[Fourier]

Gretzky had the best sense of what was happening on the ice of anyone in hockey history. He had incredible peripheral vison and was extremely agile. These things combined made him about as hard to hit as any player I have ever seen.

Having seen Greztky play live at least 500 times there is no way anyone can convince me that players did not try to hit him. For example, anyone who watched the great BOA series would know that any number of Clagary Flames would have run Gretzky through the boards if they could have.

 

[lextune]

Having seen Greztky play live at least 500 times there is no way anyone can convince me that players did not try to hit him.

Only the ignorant try to make the argument anyway.

 

[Dooman]

Gretzky had the best sense of what was happening on the ice of anyone in hockey history. He had incredible peripheral vison and was extremely agile. These things combined made him about as hard to hit as any player I have ever seen.

Having seen Greztky play live at least 500 times there is no way anyone can convince me that players did not try to hit him. For example, anyone who watched the great BOA series would know that any number of Clagary Flames would have rune Gretzky through the boards if they could have.

Youtube or it didn't happen