Quote:
Originally Posted by ot92s
this is the correct stance bravecanadian. Based on first hand accounts and contemporary comments i believe he was probably around 30min/game in the early 80's.
I still haven't seen this ad hoc formula which supposedly put the matter to rest.
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According to first hand and contemporary accounts, he was
over 30 minutes per night. Like,
well over. Wouldn't be hard to test, for someone with stock video lying around. Take one game,
any game (they were pretty much all the same, but limit yourself to games where the Oilers blow out teams early, when Gretzky might be expected to sit more toward the end of the game - set the low bar), and stopwatch for yourself how long you see Gretzky on the ice. I expect it would be difficult to turn up consecutive games (not marred by injury, or whatever) in the earliest 80s where Gretzky got less than 30 mins on the ice.
I was watching a rebroadcast 80s Oilers game on the NHL network once, when dad came downstairs and ended up watching the rest with me. Some time during the 3rd period he turns to me and asks, kind of tongue in cheek: "They never really took him off the ice, did they?" Seemed like it was just up to Wayne whether he was good to go or not. Good to go -> get on. Not good to go -> get back on next whistle. lol.