Gretzky on Oilers-Isles rivarly, today's goalie equipment
/Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky joined the MSG broadcast of the New York Islanders as they played the Oilers in Edmonton Thursday night.
He thought it was great he happened to be in town (on charity and business ventures) at the same time as an Islanders-Oilers game, since the two teams had some pretty legendary battles over the years when he was still in Edmonton.
Asked if he was disappointed in the place of the two franchises in the standings these days:
"We always want our teams to win. As you guys know, it's so hard to win now. But I like both teams, in the sense that they're both young, they're both energetic.
"I thought Craig MacTavish made some nice moves at the trade deadline yesterday. I thought Garth Snow made some nice moves. And listen, going forward they've got a lot of young talent here and now it's a matter of getting that talent to grow internally and externally to become better players."
On goalie equipment and the size of the nets:
"I never saw Mike Bossy ever miss a chance. Brett Hull is probably the guy in my era that was the best goal scorer. But Mike Bossy, I never saw him miss.
"The goaltenders.. the equipment is fine, the nets are fine. Players have to shoot where the goalies aren't."
On Billy Smith:
"The best goaltender I ever played against. He was a phenomenal athlete... we were competitors. We hated each other because we both wanted to win, but it doesn't mean we didn't respect each other and to this day I always say he was the best goalie I ever played against."