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.
PHOTO: AP
"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.
Gretzky then traded Jeff Taffe, who is engaged to Janet Gretzky's niece.
To complete the hat trick, Gretzky made Mike Comrie a healthy scratch for a game in Anaheim that Comrie's father attended; Comrie's father, Bill, is also a close friend of Gretzky's.
"Those are the three hardest things I've gone through in a long time," Gretzky said.
Hull said those were also the kinds of decisions that Gretzky must make to be successful.
"He's so level-headed -- ?he knows the game and he doesn't care who you are," Hull said in a telephone interview from Dallas. "If you're not playing well, you're not going to play. He proved that with me."
Jaromir Jagr broke a tie late in the second period with his NHL-leading 21st goal and the New York Rangers went on to their fourth straight win, beating the Atlanta Thrashers 6-3 on Thursday.
After the Thrashers scored twice to overcome a 3-1 deficit, Jagr swooped in off the right wing and snapped a high shot from between the circles that eluded the blocker of Atlanta goalie Michael Garnett with 2:02 left in the second.
Blair Betts made it 5-3 with 11:51 remaining, slipping behind defenseman Niclas Havelid and deflecting a pass from Marcel Hossa past Garnett. Jed Ortmeyer added an open-net goal in the final minute to send the Thrashers to their third straight loss.
Marian Hossa, brother of Marcel, put the Thrashers ahead just 6:38 into the game with his 10th goal, but the lead didn't stand up.
Jason Ward tied it before the period was over and the Rangers knocked out starting Atlanta goalie Steve Shields with two more goals early in the second, both off rebounds. Petr Prucha scored his fourth goal 59 seconds into the period, then Shields gave up a horrible goal to Michael Nylander.
Ward got a long shot on goal and Shields guided the rebound right in front of the net to Nylander, who knocked it into the open net at 2:11. Thrashers coach Bob Hartley had seen enough of Shields, replacing him with Garnett.
Atlanta tied the game on goals by Marc Savard and Slava Kozlov, the latter with 3:21 left in the period. But Jagr scored just over a minute later to put the Rangers ahead for good.
Jagr came into the night tied with Philadelphia's Simon Gagne for the NHL's goal-scoring lead.
Predators 4, Kings 3
In Nashville, Tennessee, Steve Sullivan had goal and an assist, and Marek Zidlicky added three assists as the Nashville Predators beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-3.
Scottie Upshall gave Nashville a 1-0 lead 5:55 into the game with his first score of the season, on a slap shot from a few feet inside the blue line that beat Los Angeles goaltender Jason Labarbera.
Paul Kariya made it 2-0 about 3 minutes later with a breakaway down the middle of the slot that ended with a wrist shot low to Labarbera's stick side.
Steve Sullivan scored from the inside edge of the right circle that went behind Labarbera at 5:45 of the second.
Canucks 3, Sharks 2
In Vancouver, British Columbia, Markus Naslund and Anson Carter scored 55 seconds apart in the third period, lifting Vancouver over San Jose.
Wade Brookbank also scored, and Bertuzzi had two assists to help the Canucks win for the fifth time in six games and improve to 10-1 at home.
Alex Auld made 20 saves to pick up his second straight win since Vancouver's No.1 goalie Dan Cloutier injured his knee on Sunday in Anaheim.
The president of the World Anti-Doping Agency said he suspects as many as a third of the National Hockey League's 700 players may take some form of performance-enhancing substances.
"I spoke with Gary [NHL commissioner Gary Bettman] and he said, `We don't have the problem in hockey,'" Dick Pound told the London Free Press on Thursday in an interview for a story to be published today. "I told him he does. You wouldn't be far wrong if you said a third."
Asked if he meant performing-enhancing drugs, the Montreal lawyer replied, "Yes."
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly took exception to Pound's comments.
"I would respectfully suggest that Mr. Pound's comments have absolutely no basis in fact," Daly told the Canadian Press. "I find it troubling, to say the least, that he would find it necessary to comment on something he has absolutely no knowledge of.
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