Gretzky at The Gardens, 40 Years Ago

 

Forty years ago, this past weekend. I remember it like yesterday. My hockey hero, Wayne Gretzky was making his fifth career appearance at Maple Leaf Gardens and it was only the third time he'd be in the spotlight of a Hockey Night in Canada game in Toronto. He had recently set the amazing record of scoring his 50th goal in the 39th game of the season, and his Oilers were riding high in first place in the entire NHL. 10 year-old me was so excited fo the game that I cut out from the newspaper the rosters with current stats and added it to a scrapbook (actual clip below). I would add the boxscore the following day. And what a boxscore it was for a young Maple Leafs/Wayne Gretzky fan.

On the Friday before the game, Gretzky put on a mini game on the Gardens ice surface with himself, his brothers Brent (12) and Glen (9) against Oilers Dave Semenko, Curt Brackenbury and coach Billy Harris. They played a game of shinny with nets placed at the blue lines. Glen even got into a fake tussle with Brackenbury. Gretzky managed to spend Friday evening at his parents house in Brantford. He signed about 100 souvenirs, and heard his three younger brothers discuss their exploits in atom, bantam and peewee hockey. After a roast beef dinner, Wayne's father Walter played a two-hour video tape he had put together from sportscasts and various games. Later that evening Wayne devoured a pizza and five pots of tea with a few childhood pals. 

The following day, game day, Wayne worked his way through the crowds outside The Gardens and even signed autographs for some of the Leaf players and Maple Leaf legend, King Clancy. A pair of tickets in the Golds was apparently selling for $300, prices last seen at the Gardens when the Canadiens and Guy LaFleur in his prime would come to town. 

As for the game itself, Gretzky summed it up afterwards by stating, "I'm glad my mother went to Florida and wasn't here to see it." Toronto routed the Oilers by a score of 7-1 behind the stellar goaltending of Michel "Bunny" Larocque. Gretzky himself did manage to put nine shots on net, scoring once. He was even foiled by Larocque on a penalty shot in the second period. If I recall, I excitedly rose from my couch and stood to watch that penalty shot, only to be simultaneously disappointed by The Kid's failure and over-joyed by the save from my Leafs tender. This internal conflict between my worship of Gretzky and my love of the Maple Leafs would rear its ugly head again thirteen years later in the memorable semifinal series between the Leafs and Grezky's L.A. Kings.

Regarding the penalty shot, Larocque said,"It was just like the movies. When the referee called the penalty shot, I just said to myself: 'Well, the fans expected a great show out of Gretzky and now they've got it.' " He continued, "I came out the same way I always do. Then I slowly backed up trying to make him go for a deke. And that's what he did." Leaf rookie, Normand Aubin was named second star after producing two goals and two assists and was quoted, "I'm pretty happy tonight. When you're in the minors you dream of a night like this...this is the first time I played against Gretzky and there's no doubt about it, he's the best player there is right now." Another Leaf receiving kudos on the night was centre, Laurie Boschman who was asked to shadow Gretzky. "Mike (Leaf coach Nykoluk) told me before the game that I'd be on Gretzky. It was a challenge to try to keep him down. I just thought about staying close to him, about a sticks length from him all the time. When he got the puck I tried to get on him right away, so I could check him or force him to pass the puck off."

The loss snapped the undefeated streak of Oiler rookie goaltender, Grant Fuhr. Over his previous 23 games he had collected 15 wins and 8 ties. Gretzky added, "We had a lot of good scoring chances, but give Larocque credit. He did a good job in the Leaf net. Indeed he did, turning aside 34 of 35 shots. Oilers coach/GM, Glen Sather said after the game,"The press here gave the game an enormous build-up and I think that got the Leafs hot." The game was so highly anticipated that it set the record for television viership record for a regular season NHL game. 3,756,000 TV sets watched CBC this evening, 46 percent of the television audience in all of Canada. The average Saturday draws 2 to 2.2 million viewers. 

Of course Toronto would miss the playoffs this season and in fact, this game proved to be the highlight of my Maple Leaf fandom for about the next four years. Yeah, I know...sad.