More than a month into his first season as an NHL coach, Wayne Gretzky said, he is asked most often whether he has the urge to jump over the boards. Gretzky, the greatest offensive player in the history of the game, is coaching one of the league's most offensively challenged teams, the Phoenix Coyotes.
The Coyotes scored 65 goals in their first 24 games. Gretzky alone once scored 50 goals in 39 games.
But the Coyotes have improved, and Gretzky, 44, seems to be holding his own behind the bench. The team opened the season 1-4-1 but has won 10 of its last 18 games.
"I've really enjoyed each and very day on the bench," Gretzky said recently. "I've enjoyed the practices and the players."
Steve Ellman, the team's principal owner, spoke about Gretzky's influence with the team beyond coaching. "Wayne's been magical for our franchise," he said.
A group led by Ellman, Gretzky and Jerry Moyes bought the Coyotes in February 2001. For Ellman, the team was essential to his US$850 million real-estate development next door to Glendale Arena, the Coyotes' new US$220 million home. The attention that Gretzky brings to the franchise helps, Ellman said.
"We've doubled our season-ticket sales; I think a lot of that has to do with Wayne," said Ellman, who added that Gretzky -- whose salary as coach is about US$1 million a season -- could coach the team as long as he wanted.
Ellman said that having Gretzky behind the bench had given the Coyotes national exposure that the franchise would not have with another coach.
"It's like being partners with Babe Ruth in baseball; it gave us instant credibility," Ellman said.
In addition to Ellman's real estate development, Glendale Arena abuts, and is dwarfed by, a multipurpose stadium that will house the NFL's Arizona Cardinals. The stadium will also hold college football's Fiesta Bowl, the 2007 Bowl Championship Series national-title game and the 2008 Super Bowl.
Three years ago, Ellman said, the land on which his development is rising was used to grow cotton. Cotton fields still abut Glendale Arena on three sides.
Inside the arena on Nov. 10, Gretzky's face was still flushed from yelling at the officials 20 minutes after a 4-3 loss to Calgary.
"That was my personality as a player: that I was going to do whatever it took to win the hockey game," Gretzky said, discussing his intensity as coach. "That's why I scored 87 empty-net goals. I was, for people who didn't know me, probably more tenacious than people kind of thought."
Calgary's Jarome Iginla, who played for Gretzky on the Canadian national team at the Salt Lake Olympics in 2002, said: "We don't get to see that a lot at the Olympics and stuff. He's always very calm. But you can see he has intensity on the bench.
"That's probably what made him the greatest player that ever played -- that inner thing. It's probably just coming out again. And I think it's good to see, because he probably was like that in his playing days."
LOTS OF HATS
Gretzky is the Coyotes' managing partner and the executive director for the Canadian Olympic team, which will defend its gold medal at the Turin Games in February. Among his many business endeavors is a fantasy camp he held in the Phoenix area in mid-November.
While juggling all that, Gretzky has also faced some challenges as coach. During his first month on the job, he informed Brett Hull, his close friend, that his ice time would be limited. That led to Hull's retirement in October.
RSS