On TSN's Top 10: Most Skilled Hockey players countdown (currently on the video player on the site: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl), they get to Gretzky and he says he patterned his idea of playing from behind the net after watching Bobby Clarke.
Maybe I'm just too much of a youngin' or something, but I've never heard him say anything like that before...has anyone else?
Either way, it's an interesting little quote and a pretty cool countdown. Check it out.
I can't access the video just now so I am unsure of the content. However, after the game in which Gretzky scored five goals against the Flyers which gave him 50 in 39 games, Clarke congratulated him in the Oilers' dressing room. It was a gesture that Gretzky has recounted more than once and he told Clarke that night that he patterned that style of game after him.
I can't access the video just now so I am unsure of the content. However, after the game in which Gretzky scored five goals against the Flyers which gave him 50 in 39 games, Clarke congratulated him in the Oilers' dressing room. It was a gesture that Gretzky has recounted more than once and he told Clarke that night that he patterned that style of game after him.
He was referencing about how he liked to set up behind the net.
He was referencing about how he liked to set up behind the net.
IIRC, Gretzky snapped Phil Esposito's single-season point record on a similar play; Greg Millen, then of Pittsburgh, was the goalie and it was Gretzky's second NHL season. Anyway, he mentioned after that game that he considered his style of play to be a cross of Clarke and Gilbert Perreault and mentioned specifically that type of play when citing Clarke.
On TSN's Top 10: Most Skilled Hockey players countdown (currently on the video player on the site: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl), they get to Gretzky and he says he patterned his idea of playing from behind the net after watching Bobby Clarke.
Maybe I'm just too much of a youngin' or something, but I've never heard him say anything like that before...has anyone else?
Either way, it's an interesting little quote and a pretty cool countdown. Check it out.
That was Clarkie's move. But I never heard Gretzky say that.But a young kid growing up in Canada back in the 70's had to have Clarkie right there as a idol. He will always be my favorite player hands down. The arc angel of the spectrum. The one person who gave the Flyers their identity that still carries on to this day.
On TSN's Top 10: Most Skilled Hockey players countdown (currently on the video player on the site: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl), they get to Gretzky and he says he patterned his idea of playing from behind the net after watching Bobby Clarke.
Maybe I'm just too much of a youngin' or something, but I've never heard him say anything like that before...has anyone else?
Either way, it's an interesting little quote and a pretty cool countdown. Check it out.
I remember Gretzky saying that during his career when asked about 'his office'.
Yeah, he's mentored quite a few times that he learned a lot from watching Clarke growing up. He was the premiere playmaking forward of his day so it kinda makes sense.
