USA TODAY International Edition
Gretzky loses patience with losing effort
around pretty quick,” says Kings center Jeremy Roenick, who played against Gretzky.
Of course, Janet Gretzky saw this quality in her husband long before the managing partner and part-owner of the Coyotes announced Aug. 9 he would coach the team. That’s how he coached his boys’ Little League baseball teams after he retired as a player in 1999.
She saw him mold 8- year-oldswho couldn’t play the game into realizing their youthful fantasies.
“ A kid maybe another father would stick out in the out 5 eld, maybe that kid’s dream was to be a catcher. And by the third or fourth game, Wayne had him catching,” hiswife says.
Now he has the Coyotes listening, if not always producing, in his hands-on attempt to transform a franchise that hasn’twon a playoff series since arriving in the desert in 1996 into a contender.
“ His passion comes through when you watch him on the bench,” Kings coach Andy Murray says.
The fans are noticing. Season ticket sales are up 30% over the 2003- 2004 season. Renewal rates were 80%, the highest in franchise history. Group sales tickets are up 240%. Attendance has increased by 1,000, to an average of 15,098. Patience being tested
Gretzky’s transition to the bench — a post- lockout publicity boost for the recovering NHL — has been surprisingly smooth personally, even with his family split between their Thousand Oaks, Calif., home and Phoenix residence.
But with seven one- goal losses and a power play bungling opportunities ( successful just 19.1% of the time), it has been taxing professionally.
Gretzky describes himself “ pretty patient guy,” but even he admits patience is probably what has been hardest to learn as a coach.
“ Some days, we’re just not good. Sometimes, we make the same mistakes over and over,” says Gretzky, 44. “ So to be patient and understanding and encourage players as much as you can, that’s a big thing about coaching.”
From the beginning, he has wrapped his arms around his young players like a protective father. In training camp, he went out of his way to talk to 22- year-olds Ballard and Michalek.
“ He was always making sure we felt comfortable and knew it was OK to make mistakes,” Ballard says. “ He was very patientwith us.”
Gretzky says he could identify with a player like Michalek.
“ He comes from a different country, from a different organization, he plays in the minors, all he works to do is play hockey,” Gretzky says. “ He probably grewup with a family not having a lot of money, similar to how I grew up. And all of a sudden, he’s living and playing for the Phoenix Coyotes and in the NHL.
“ He’s one of the hardest working players I’ve ever seen. The success of young guys like Ballard and him, that part is extremely rewarding to me.” Players knowwhere he stands as a
On the other hand, Gretzky has not hesitated in letting unproductive players knowwhere they stand.
He yanked goalie Curtis Joseph after two periods in an October game in his second attempt at 400 wins, which he later achieved. He scratched veteran defenseman Sean O’Donnell one game. He threatened to pull his regulars off the power play after a 0- for- 4 performance in a 2- 1 overtime loss at Chicago on Sunday.
“ He’ll live with mistakes of innocence, but not a lack of effort,” says general manager Mike Barnett, Gretzky’s former agent. “ Our players have nowseen how he responds.”
Gretzky demands hard work, and he won’t hesitate to raise his voice. He’s very hands-on in practice, so are his three coaches. He’s a delegator, but he makes his presence felt.
“ He gets into it,” veteran forward Mike Ricci says. “ He’s a coach now. He has his 5 ngers on everything. We don’t look at him as Wayne Gretzky the hockey player. He’s H. C. — head coach.”
That was made perfectly clearly when Gretzky ordered the no- puck skateathon after the Coyotes lost a two- goal lead at home Oct. 29 in a 5- 3 loss against the Dallas Stars, then lost a one- goal game the next night at Anaheim to fall to 5-8- 1.
“ OK isn’t good enough,” Gretzky says. “ Close doesn’t count. I wanted everyone to make sure that the feeling was mutual in the sense that close doesn’t reward anything. If we’re going to play successfully, we have to work hard every night, every shift, every game and not be satis 5 ed with 3- 2 losses. So we sent a message that said w e have a f eeling o f u rgency here.”
Message received. “ When he talks, you listen,” Ballard says. “ He’s probably forgotten more hockey than everyone in this locker room knows.”
High expectations come with the Gretzky package. It’s who he is. He never cheated the game as a player. He’s not about to start as a coach.
“We told our players our goals aren’t going to change,” says Barry Smith, the veteran assistant coach Gretzky hired. “Because you don’t meet ours, we’ll keep pushing. If you don’t, we’ll 5 nd some new guys.”
At the same time, Gretzky has kept his cool and not panicked. He’s in this for the long haul.
“ We are not going to go from being a bad team to being the best team in the NHL overnight,” he says. “ As I said to the players, ‘ We’re not as bad as people’s perceptions believe we are, and we’re not as good as you think you are.’ ”
That has a philosophical ring to it, but Gretzky says he’s no Phil Jackson. “ I’m not a Zen Master. I’m not a big believer in quoting guys. I’m more a straight- ahead guy. If they’re playing poorly, I tell them why. If they’re playing well, I praise them. My job is to prepare them for the next opponents. It’s the biggest job as a coach.”
He endured a public embarrassment in his second game on the job when he mistakenly penciled in a player as a scratch and incurred a penalty when the player skated onto the ice before the game. Otherwise, his crossover has been seamless.
“ I love it. I should have done this earlier,” he says. “ I hope to do this a long time.” Glad to be back at the scene
Told his long- range plans, his wife laughs and says, “ That’s scary.”
She was the one who encouraged him to coach. Now she says she can’t pull him away from it.
His greatest frustration: too few hours in the day. In addition to his coaching duties, Gretzky remains involved in promoting the franchise as a part-owner. He’s still the managing partner; the general manager and vice president of hockey operations answer to him.
“ It’s never-ending,” he says.
But this beats watching games on television. “There was something missing,” hiswife says. “ It seems to be such a p erf ect 5 t. He t ruly l oves i t, even after losses. I say, ‘ Wayne, are you sure you like this?’ And he says he loves it, not, ‘ I like it.’ ”
He admits losing “ eats” at him and stays with him longer as a coach than it did as a player. But he can’t wait for the next day. He’s invested in the job. “ It’s a treat being behind the bench,” he says.
Hiswife sees the renewed joy in his life. “ Being on the ice was his calling, but it is a great thing to watch him coach now because I see it’s the closest thing he can feel that he felt as a player.”
Gretzky agrees. He’s back in his comfort zone visiting old haunts, where he gets polite applause every time he is introduced. On the bench, even in retirement as a player, he remains the face of the NHL.
Even in a suit, he gets that old buzz back at game time. “ When I retired, I remember thinking, ‘ I’ll never have this feeling again,’ ” he says. “ But the 5 rst game I coached, I remember thinking, ‘ Wow, this is like being a player again.’ ”
He doesn’t look back. Others do, however, questioning whether he is risking spoiling his legacy as The Great One as a coach.
“People are always going to be judgmental,” Gretzky says. “ You’re always going to have a few naysayers. But for anybodywho tries to compare what I do as a coach and player . . . what I did as a player, nobody can ever take away. It’s over and done with.”
His new endeavor, however, comes at some personal cost.
Because his oldest daughter, Paulina, a junior, wants to graduate with her high school class, the family is temporarily split up. Paulina, almost 17; Emma, almost 3; Trevor, 13 and a player on a traveling baseball team; and Tristan, 5, live with their mom in California. Ty, 15, and a hockey player at a local high school, liveswith Gretzky in Phoenix and works the Coyotes’ locker room and bench during games.
“It’s tough, yes,” Gretzky’s wife says. “But it’s working out pretty good. We see each other a lot. And Ty is enjoying himself a lot.”
Dad is, too. A lot.
“ He missed the action of it,” hiswife says. “ Now he feels he can be a little part of every guy out there, even though he can’t be the guy to put the puck in the net.”