If you went after Wayne Gretzky or did something nasty against him on the ice, it didn’t take long until some of his teammates came to his aid to defend him.
But when all-time great Bobby Clarke crushed Gretzky in The Great One’s early career, the telling-off didn’t come from an opponent but instead from his wife.
” Edmonton comes to town, and all those guys are really young but really good. We are up a goal late in the third period, and they pull their goalie. We’re defending, and I come up against Gretzky, and I crosscheck him really hard in the back. Down he goes. That time there’s a six-on-five, and there’s no penalty going to be called in those days,” he says on The Cam & Strick Podcast.
” So after the game, I’m heading into the car and driving home with my wife, and she’s pissed. And I said,” what’s the matter with you?” And she says,” How could you do that to that nice, young boy?”
” Gretzky at the time looked like my 12-year-old son. He looks so young. And I looked at my wife, and I said:” That nice, young boy is going to be kicking our ass for a long time.”
