New York Rangers: Thank you, Mr Gretzky

How does a young kid from England become a New York Rangers fanatic? The legendary Wayne Gretzky may have played a role…

Today marks 20 years since The Great One laced up his skates one final time and waved an emotional goodbye to the New York Rangers and the rest of the hockey world.

Madison Square Garden was the epicenter of the sporting world on April 18, 1999 when Gretzky tallied the 2,857th and final point of his glittering career before riding off into the sunset.

Broadway and the hockey world was awash with emotion that day, and rightly so after bidding farewell to one of the greatest to have ever played the game.

It was perhaps fitting that Gretzky pulled the curtain down on a remarkable career against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the world’s most famous arena.

He was an inspiration to so many and an idol to all those kids who put on their skates, grabbed a stick and went on to spend hours upon hours out on frozen lakes across America and Canada.

Gretzky also helped to get a teenager in the small town of Swindon, England into the game we all adore.

Brought up on a staple diet of soccer and cricket, I grew up supporting Manchester United and my local soccer club, Swindon Town, who I would later go on to work for.

That’s all I knew growing up in a soccer mad family, and I was certainly oblivious at that point to a sport which involved whacking a lump of frozen rubber about.

However, that all changed one October day in 2008.

Skipping college (I hope none of my family are reading this) as I often did, I turned ESPN on at my grandparents house and stumbled upon a Rangers game.

I was hooked.

I did have some prior exposure to ice hockey having grown up with friends who went on to play for our local hockey team in Swindon, the Swindon Wildcats, but I had never seen anything like this before.

Whether it was Sean Avery being, well, Sean Avery, my first sight of Henrik Lundqvist between the pipes or just the wonder of the spectacle unfolding right before my very eyes, I was captivated.

Once that game was finished I was straight on YouTube digesting every single bit of hockey-related content I could.

And that’s where I first stumbled upon Wayne Gretzky.

I spent the rest of the day enchanted by the grace in which Gretzky moved around the ice, amazed by his eye for a pass and left awestruck by how he could strike a puck with so much venom.

It was simple. I knew from that day that hockey was the sport for me and, fast forward eleven years later, that passion is still alive and kicking for a 26-year-old who has made it his mission to cover ice hockey in the States one day.

Wayne Gretzky was and still is to hockey what Michael Jordan is to basketball, what Joe Montana is to football, what Babe Ruth is to baseball and what Tiger Woods is to golf.

His stats speak for themselves. 50 goals in the first 39 games of a season, 215 points in just 80 games in 1985-86 and 15, yes 15, 100-or-more point seasons.

Gretzky was an 18-time NHL All-Star and finished his career with 2,856 points (894 goals, 1,962 assists) in 1,485 games.

Add in just the four Stanley Cups, nine Hart Trophies and numerous scoring titles and accolades, Gretzky’s legacy is one that will be enshrined in hockey’s fine tapestry for ever.

Put it simply, Gretzky would be most, if not all, hockey fans’ first choice to be etched into hockey’s version of Mount Rushmore.

With a boatload of records under his belt, Gretzky carved out the kind of career that only dreams are made of and it is a career unlikely to ever be matched, in any sport let alone hockey.

So, on the day where we take a trip down memory lane and reminisce about The Great One’s final swansong, I felt it only right to pen my own tribute to the man who introduced me to the greatest sport on the planet.

Thank you, Mr. Gretzky.