Wayne Gretzky is the best to ever do it. You can make a strong argument for Mario Lemieux, but Gretzky is still widely considered the goat, and if you just look at his stats, it’s hard to argue. Wayne Gretzky scored 894 goals in the NHL and recorded 2,857 points.
Alex Ovechkin may pass The Great One in goals, but his points record will likely never get close to being beaten. Wayne Gretzky won several cups and almost every individual honor possible, and what makes his career even more impressive is how he acted off the ice.
Today, hockey players are athletes in extremely good shape. They train hard all year long, they teach every day, and they leave nothing to chance. But players took everything a little more chill during the Wayne Gretzky era. What you ate or drank before, during, and after games weren’t the most important thing in the world. And Gretzky was the perfect example.
Wayne Gretzky has revealed that he had a pre-game routine where he always chunked two Diet Cokes and a Gatorade. He also loved hot dogs and ate several during a game evening.
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Gretzky was the big star during the 1987 Canada Cup. Mike Keenan was named head coach of Team Canada, and for some reason, he had his own ideas on what the pre-game dinner had to be. Keenan made the dinner mandatory, and it was nothing but chicken and broccoli.
Wayne Gretzky played for the Edmonton Oilers at the time, and their pre-game meal had been steak, potatoes, and an ice cream sundae for dessert. Gretzky was one of five Oilers players in Team Canada, and they were all fed up.
As soon as Gretzky saw the chicken and broccoli, he marched into the kitchen and demanded 25 orders of steak, potatoes, and sundaes. Team Canada ate just what Gretzky had ordered for the rest of the tournament, and it worked. Team Canada won gold, and Gretzky finished with 21 points in 9 games, more than any other in the tournament.
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