Latest Wayne Gretzky Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• We feel fortunate [with Canada hockey team]. We have got a lot of guys who love to play, but they also love to win even more. We are pretty happy. Although we are young, we like our group of players.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Team, Hockey, Winning

  Source: www.hockeycanada.ca

• Canadian players have started to put more of an importance on the World Championships in the sense that as soon as they lose, they are called, they want to go play and they don't go only on the basis of if they are injured.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Player, World, Want

  Source: www.hockeycanada.ca

• That's the hardest part of this whole process. The best part is picking the players and the worst part is telling basically five players they are not going to play tonight.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Player, Tonight, Process

  Source: www.hockeycanada.ca

• I think the greatest thing about playing obviously is winning, and you can't replace that experience with anything.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Winning, Thinking

  Source: www.hockeycanada.ca

• It doesn't matter what I think. It doesn't matter what other people think. You have to get on the ice and participate and play and the best team wins.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Team, Winning, Thinking

  Source: www.hockeycanada.ca

• It really doesn't matter or concern me what people are saying or who thinks who is the favorite. The bottom line is you have to play.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Thinking, Play, People

  Source: www.hockeycanada.ca

• I think the Americans are ready to play, they want to beat us. I think that players like Chris Chelios and his leadership over there goes a long way.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Player, Thinking, Long

  Source: www.hockeycanada.ca

• In one sense we are a favorite because we won a gold medal in 2002.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Gold, Medal, Gold Medals

  Source: www.hockeycanada.ca

• What you want to do with your best players is, it doesn't matter how many goals and assists they get, but when they get goals and assists. The best players get them at the most important times, and that's when we need those guys to come through.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Player, Goal, Guy

  Source: www.hockeycanada.ca

• The best players in the game want the responsibility of being the best player. The reality is the game has changed from now back to '87. It's a lot tighter checking. The players are better today. So, that makes it harder for him just in that fact. We can't rely solely on Mario [Lemieux] to carry this team. We're not relying on that.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Team, Responsibility, Player

  Source: www.hockeycanada.ca

• When you're playing an exhibition, you're kind of letting everyone get an opportunity.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Opportunity, Exhibitions, Kind

  Source: www.hockeycanada.ca

• Lifting the Stanley Cup for the first time. There's nothing like it. It's the greatest story. In my era, they used to say you couldn't be a superstar without winning one. I remember thinking when I lifted it: "Now they can't say that about me."

  Wayne Gretzky

  Winning, Thinking, Stories

  "Wayne Gretzky on the love of his life". Interview with Jonathon Gatehouse, www.macleans.ca. October 6, 2016.

• As a player, you have one responsibility, to focus yourself and be ready for the game. As a coach, your responsibility is to get 20 guys ready and have them all on the same page. If you can't get every guy ready every night, you're going to struggle.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Struggle, Responsibility, Player

  "Wayne Gretzky on the love of his life". Interview with Jonathon Gatehouse, www.macleans.ca. October 6, 2016.

• Nothing can replace the Olympics. I love the Olympics. I was so proud when I played in '98 and I was so proud when we won in 2002.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Proud, Olympics

  "Wayne Gretzky on the love of his life". Interview with Jonathon Gatehouse, www.macleans.ca. October 6, 2016.

• Hockey is my life. I love every minute of it.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Hockey, Minutes

  "Wayne Gretzky on the love of his life". Interview with Jonathon Gatehouse, www.macleans.ca. October 6, 2016.

• I love everything about hockey.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Hockey

  "Wayne Gretzky on the love of his life". Interview with Jonathon Gatehouse, www.macleans.ca. October 6, 2016.

• If we're going to change the game it has to start at eight, nine and 10 years old. When we were that age we'd go to the pond or backyard rink and throw a puck on the ice and play five on five, or seven on seven. You get this creativity and this imagination that comes from within, just having fun on the pond. Now kids are so focused on team play, and the coaches are so focused on positioning. You can't change it at the NHL level.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Fun, Team, Creativity

  "Wayne Gretzky on the love of his life". Interview with Jonathon Gatehouse, www.macleans.ca. October 6, 2016.

• When I played in a 21-team league, there were six or seven goalies who were just average, and the equipment and pads were smaller. I came in the right era. I played for the right team. It was all speed, and creativity and imagination.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Team, Creativity, Average

  "Wayne Gretzky on the love of his life". Interview with Jonathon Gatehouse, www.macleans.ca. October 6, 2016.

• I can't remember the last time I went to a game and there was a fight. I think they fight more in baseball now than they do in hockey.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Baseball, Fighting, Hockey

  "Wayne Gretzky on the love of his life". Interview with Jonathon Gatehouse, www.macleans.ca. October 6, 2016.

• My best friend had a hockey scholarship at Ohio State, so I would get a couple of pairs at the beginning of the season and send them down to him. They practised two hours a day. He'd skate in them for three weeks then ship them back.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Couple, Hockey, Ohio State

  "Wayne Gretzky on the love of his life". Interview with Jonathon Gatehouse, www.macleans.ca. October 6, 2016.

• Kids don't fight in minor hockey anymore. There's very few fights in junior and college hockey. So growing up, all these guys are not fighting.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Growing Up, Kids, Fighting

  "Wayne Gretzky on the love of his life". Interview with Jonathon Gatehouse, www.macleans.ca. October 6, 2016.

• I wasn't a great skater and I needed my skates to be perfect - really tight around the ankles. But I couldn't break in new ones because my feet would hurt so much. I wore a size 9 shoe and a 6.5 skate - my foot was really crunched.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Hurt, Shoes, Feet

  "Wayne Gretzky on the love of his life". Interview with Jonathon Gatehouse, www.macleans.ca. October 6, 2016.

• Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull and Jean Béliveau probably looked at us in the '80s and said, "These guys are soft. We used to take the train."

  Wayne Gretzky

  Guy, Hull, Used

  "Wayne Gretzky on the love of his life". Interview with Jonathon Gatehouse, www.macleans.ca. October 6, 2016.

• The last year I was playing, I asked the stick boy to get me a Diet Coke and he said, "Really?" But I always had one on the bench because that's what I did in 1979 when there wasn't Gatorade. If you needed energy you went and got a Snickers or a Kit Kat. Nobody knew any better.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Boys, Years, Energy

  "Wayne Gretzky on the love of his life". Interview with Jonathon Gatehouse, www.macleans.ca. October 6, 2016.

• It's easier to lose than to win.

  Wayne Gretzky

  Winning, Easier, Loses

  "Wayne Gretzky on the love of his life". Interview with Jonathon Gatehouse, www.macleans.ca. October 6, 2016.