The Edmonton Oilers gained the early edge in the Stanley Cup Final, defeating the Florida Panthers 4-3 in overtime on Wednesday night at Rogers Place in Edmonton. Hall of Famer and former Oilers captain Wayne Gretzky was in attendance to watch the game, working with the studio crew of the NHL on TNT.
Gretzky has since appeared as a special guest on “The Pat McAfee Show”, and discussed the camaraderie that he sees in both the Oilers and Panthers that is necessary to succeed at the NHL level.
“We’re always together, I mean especially when you’re playing, it’s 20 guys and you go to dinner together,” he said. “The teams who do that are more successful. The teams were four guys go one place and three guys go to another place, that’s not a team. You look at the Edmonton guys, they’re always together. You look at the Florida group, they’re always together. Tampa Bay. Those teams year after year are successful, there’s no secret to why it is. They’ll go through a wall for each other, and you gotta have that in our sport.”
Gretzky was asked about whether he feels that this current Oilers team is the one to finally break the lengthy Stanley Cup drought that the nation of Canada has endured, as the 1992-93 Montreal Canadiens are the most recent Canadian-based team
“This is the team to do it,” Gretzky said. “One, I don’t think Florida has played a team that is as physical as Edmonton. The speed of Edmonton matches Carolina, but Edmonton’s more physical. And when you get to three championship series in a row, you’re physically beat up.
“Right now, I hope Florida can rebound, but they’ve put their guts on the line the last three years and it’s hard to get to the Stanley Cup Finals and they play hard… I expect them to bounce back. But listen, Edmonton feels it. That’s all anyone talks about.”
The Oilers and Panthers will battle in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final on Friday evening.
Wayne Gretzky believes NHL has done good work drawing outside fans in
When Gretzky was traded from the Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings in 1988, it was one of the most stunning moves in sports history. But it would result in a wave of interest in hockey in a non-traditional area, and later led to the growth of the NHL in other non-traditional markets.
Gretzky said he believes that the more people get to see the game, the more they’ll appreciate it.
“When I first went to LA, I said, ‘The more people we can have come and see the sport and realize the art of our sport, it’s physical, it’s fast, you gotta skate and be unselfish, you gotta play hard, take a hit and give a hit – the more people we can get to view our sport, the faster and bigger it’s gonna grow’. And that’s what the League has done.”
Gretzky would later play for both the St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers before retiring in 1999.
