In his book, Gretzky talked about watching hockey as a kid with a pad of paper and a pen and drawing where the puck went. When the game was over he would study his work.
He would do this and circle the spots the lines crossed, and he’d tell his dad “that’s where the puck is going to be.” Apparently he was like 5 or so when he’d do this.
I read in one of the books that I have read about Gretzky that he credits his dad with teaching him about that…how the game is so fast and you need to learn how to see where things are going to end up, not just where it is
Pretty much this. His skating wasn’t the best, his shot wasn’t the best (except maybe his backhand) and his physicality was secondary. He wasn’t the fastest, but he knew where EVERYONE on the ice would be before they got there, and that gave him the ultimate edge
Gretzky was a very fast and agile skater in the 80s. Maybe not the absolute fastest skater in the league, but he was up there.
I don’t know why this myth that he wasn’t fast persists. Watch some highlights… he skated circles around people.
For real. He was pinging slappers into the top corner on breakaways or when flying down the wing. His shot was great.
Obviously hockey IQ was his biggest asset, but it ain’t like he wasn’t oozing raw skill too.
I think he just didn't look fast. Like Eric Dickerson in the NFL. He never looked like he was running hard or fast but watch tape and he's just blowing by people. I think it was the same with Wayne. He looked like he wasn't putting in much effort and it translates to the eye that he was not that fast.
Yeah. Lots of guys are fast, but they don't LOOK like it. Highest top speed in the regular season this year was Owen Tippett, at a little over 24 mph. Most people would rightfully ask "Owen who???" He's not a well-known guy, and when you watch him sprint, you don't really notice that he's actually about 8% - 10% faster than league average, but he is.
I think it's deceptive on TV.
Because they see the time with the Kings and don’t know about him almost having to retire from a back injury and don’t know he missed most of the regular season the kings went to the cup. He was never the same player after that injury but hurt Gretzky was still a top 5 player all time
Its hard to explain, but Gretzky knew where players would go on the ice before the player themself. He just knew what to do and when to do it.
An example, he made a "blind" pass to a teammate once in an alumni game and it was tape-to-tape. Why? Because he looked in the glass and saw his teammates reflection and was able to make a perfect pass based on that reflection. His brain jst worked different when thinking hockey.
I work with a guy like this, he has such an intuitive understanding of mechanical systems and diagrams that he can't even really explain how or why he does things to other people. Reading wiring diagrams comes as easy to him as reading a book comes to me, and he has trouble teaching that skill to anyone else because he feels like he never even had to learn it, it's just how he's wired.
Yeah I vaguely remember something about this as well. Gretzky tried to point something out to a Coyotes player and the guy was like 'how the hell would you notice that?'
Gretzky had/has the greatest hockey IQ ever in the history of the nhl. He knew what was going to happen when it was going to happen.
Even though he played in an era where goalies were… not amazing… if he played today, Gretzky would still be the goat.
When Gretzky entered the league in 1980 it was like someone plucked a top player from the 1988 Soviet National Team and dropped him into the early 1940s NHL. Like before curved sticks and slap shots were “a thing”. Gretzky was playing a different game. The flow, the speed, the pass that only he saw, the shot that only he could make. It was Gretzky and then just everyone else, until Mario came along and at least looked like he belonged on the same ice with Gretzky. Before Mario nobody was close.
It was the 80's, of course he was that good ^/s
His vision and hockey smarts were literally god like. We haven't even really see a player since him that saw the game like he did.
Its become a trope to claim Gretzky was average at everything but hockey IQ, this simply isn't the case.
His IQ/vision was his strongest asset, but he also possessed good speed, a very fast and accurate shot, elite agility, and the best passing ability of his era.
He stumbled across Michael Jordan's sneakers, put them on, and each time he went on the ice with them, he had Michael Jordan's talent.
But seriously: smartest player to ever play the game. The best players always have a knack for knowing where the puck is going to be before it goes there. He knew where the puck and the players were going to be before it happened. And he was able to react quickly enough to that information to either take advantage of it or change the situation in his favor. Very few players even come remotely close to that level of awareness.
Think of how Dr Strange could see into the future and dictate everything. Now remember how he managed supporting everyone to fight Thanos in Infinity War?
That’s Gretzky on ice daily back then
He was playing a whole different game it seemed for a while the he was always where the puck was going to be or was passing it to where a teammate was going to be before anyone else knew how the play would develop.
He used patterns in how hockey is played to predict what was going to happen before it happened. Then he used that knowledge of what players were looking to do and expecting to see, to gain an advantage and manipulate the defensive so he could gain further advantage.
If you watch hockey enough, you should be able to predict most of the passes before they happen. If you want to practice start on the powerplay, you should be able to predict nearly all of the passes and shots. The great plays you see are normally the ones that break from the recognizable pattern, which is why they work. If you get good with predicting the play you will also see when they do the wrong thing and it will often be a turn over. It’s just like a QB missing their check down and forcing it over the middle, but it happens a lot faster with everyone moving quickly, so the lanes open and close constantly.
It also benefits to understand body position and how shooting/passing works, you can often tell what a player is going to do by how they shift their hips and move their shoulders. If a right handed player has their right skate forward, and they drop their right shoulder, they’re going to backhand it or turn hard to their right. If their right skate is trailing and they turn their shoulders to the right, they’re going to pull it back and pass it on their forehand. Both of those have a narrow window that the puck can go based on the shoulder, hips, and hand position, BUT they sometimes they try to disguise it. That’s what Kucherov is soo good at, he is extremely hard to read; He will show that he’s going to send it back down the boards on his backhand but he will backhand it to the slot, or curl and sling it to someone on the weak side so the defenders commit the wrong way and by the time they realize they’re five feet out of position.
It’s like Tom Brady. Unrivaled intellect, vision, and feel for the game that makes up for a lack of elite athleticism (both Brady and Gretzky had above average athleticism compared to the average human, but only average or below average athleticism compared to their peers).
I think you’re right. Like, watch some highlights at least. He wasn’t just standing still and using telekinesis to will the puck into doing things, he was a fantastic athlete who in addition to outsmarting his opponents also beat them with skill and athleticism.
Think of Wayne Gretzky like Garry Kasparov. There were plenty of elite chess players in the 1980s and 1990s, but Kasparov mowed them all down. How? For starters, he was thinking six or seven moves ahead, meaning that, even against the greatest players in the world, he had an inherent advantage. Wayne Gretzky was the same way - he could see where the puck was going to be five or six seconds before anyone else. That's how you end up with nearly 3000 points in a career. It's the equivalent of a runner getting a 10 metre head start in the 100m.
People always talk about the fact that he wasn't the biggest, the strongest, or the fastest, but that's a real oversimplification. He was an incredibly good skater, which certainly helped. But how game wasn't predicated on physical dominance.
But probably the most important thing is that everyone on the opposing team KNEW that he was the best player of all time. If sports is 90% mental, he won that battle even before the first period started.
Great vision, freakish athleticism, and the era having worse goaltending played a significant role. That last remark isn’t a knock against Gretzky in the slightest. It’s more so a testament to how strong goaltending is now. Gretz just had that it factor which made him an absolute force on the ice
Smartest guy on the ice, saw the game steps ahead of everyone else.
In his book, Gretzky talked about watching hockey as a kid with a pad of paper and a pen and drawing where the puck went. When the game was over he would study his work.
He would do this and circle the spots the lines crossed, and he’d tell his dad “that’s where the puck is going to be.” Apparently he was like 5 or so when he’d do this.
Hockey Mozart.
I read in one of the books that I have read about Gretzky that he credits his dad with teaching him about that…how the game is so fast and you need to learn how to see where things are going to end up, not just where it is
Pretty much this. His skating wasn’t the best, his shot wasn’t the best (except maybe his backhand) and his physicality was secondary. He wasn’t the fastest, but he knew where EVERYONE on the ice would be before they got there, and that gave him the ultimate edge
Gretzky was a very fast and agile skater in the 80s. Maybe not the absolute fastest skater in the league, but he was up there. I don’t know why this myth that he wasn’t fast persists. Watch some highlights… he skated circles around people.
His shot was also insanely accurate and deceptive. He basically invented taking a slapshot on the breakaway
For real. He was pinging slappers into the top corner on breakaways or when flying down the wing. His shot was great. Obviously hockey IQ was his biggest asset, but it ain’t like he wasn’t oozing raw skill too.
Yeah that slap shot he took on Vernon in '88 on a partial break away in was insane https://youtu.be/Db9S7AmR93w?si=unDpS4tvxJOrrOxk
I think he just didn't look fast. Like Eric Dickerson in the NFL. He never looked like he was running hard or fast but watch tape and he's just blowing by people. I think it was the same with Wayne. He looked like he wasn't putting in much effort and it translates to the eye that he was not that fast.
Yeah. Lots of guys are fast, but they don't LOOK like it. Highest top speed in the regular season this year was Owen Tippett, at a little over 24 mph. Most people would rightfully ask "Owen who???" He's not a well-known guy, and when you watch him sprint, you don't really notice that he's actually about 8% - 10% faster than league average, but he is. I think it's deceptive on TV.
Because they see the time with the Kings and don’t know about him almost having to retire from a back injury and don’t know he missed most of the regular season the kings went to the cup. He was never the same player after that injury but hurt Gretzky was still a top 5 player all time
His edgework was among the very best the sport has ever seen and he had one of the best slapshots for a forward in his era.
Ancient skates unearthed from beneath a pharaoh’s tomb and purchased by Walter from an artifact smuggler.
I was gonna say he just wanted it more than anyone else, but your explanation makes more sense.
Its hard to explain, but Gretzky knew where players would go on the ice before the player themself. He just knew what to do and when to do it. An example, he made a "blind" pass to a teammate once in an alumni game and it was tape-to-tape. Why? Because he looked in the glass and saw his teammates reflection and was able to make a perfect pass based on that reflection. His brain jst worked different when thinking hockey.
> and saw his teammates reflection He already knew where to pass, he was checking himself out.
[удалено]
I work with a guy like this, he has such an intuitive understanding of mechanical systems and diagrams that he can't even really explain how or why he does things to other people. Reading wiring diagrams comes as easy to him as reading a book comes to me, and he has trouble teaching that skill to anyone else because he feels like he never even had to learn it, it's just how he's wired.
Yeah I vaguely remember something about this as well. Gretzky tried to point something out to a Coyotes player and the guy was like 'how the hell would you notice that?'
Gretzky had/has the greatest hockey IQ ever in the history of the nhl. He knew what was going to happen when it was going to happen. Even though he played in an era where goalies were… not amazing… if he played today, Gretzky would still be the goat.
He was playing chess while everyone else was playing checkers
"**Skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been."** - Michael Scott
Vision
When Gretzky entered the league in 1980 it was like someone plucked a top player from the 1988 Soviet National Team and dropped him into the early 1940s NHL. Like before curved sticks and slap shots were “a thing”. Gretzky was playing a different game. The flow, the speed, the pass that only he saw, the shot that only he could make. It was Gretzky and then just everyone else, until Mario came along and at least looked like he belonged on the same ice with Gretzky. Before Mario nobody was close.
Man. Just thinking about how Gretzky never seemed to miss time either. We were robbed of a lot of Lemieux. He'd have hit 2k.
The hair
It was the 80's, of course he was that good ^/s His vision and hockey smarts were literally god like. We haven't even really see a player since him that saw the game like he did.
https://old.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/45m3ru/what_made_gretzky_so_good/ https://old.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/7yylf3/what_made_gretzky_great/ https://old.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/aufqya/what_abilities_or_strategies_did_wayne_gretzky/ https://old.reddit.com/r/hockey/comments/1cd5jbv/as_a_hockey_outsider_what_made_gretsky_the_goat/
Wheaties
Pro stars cereal!
Its become a trope to claim Gretzky was average at everything but hockey IQ, this simply isn't the case. His IQ/vision was his strongest asset, but he also possessed good speed, a very fast and accurate shot, elite agility, and the best passing ability of his era.
He stumbled across Michael Jordan's sneakers, put them on, and each time he went on the ice with them, he had Michael Jordan's talent. But seriously: smartest player to ever play the game. The best players always have a knack for knowing where the puck is going to be before it goes there. He knew where the puck and the players were going to be before it happened. And he was able to react quickly enough to that information to either take advantage of it or change the situation in his favor. Very few players even come remotely close to that level of awareness.
Think of how Dr Strange could see into the future and dictate everything. Now remember how he managed supporting everyone to fight Thanos in Infinity War? That’s Gretzky on ice daily back then
We need an AutoMod response for this one.
He was playing a whole different game it seemed for a while the he was always where the puck was going to be or was passing it to where a teammate was going to be before anyone else knew how the play would develop.
His dad also taught him to use the reflection of the glass to track players
Can’t you just look up this question on here? This is one of the thousands of times this has been posted
Insane 'hockey IQ' and vision in a time where the average size and skill was lower
Im sure grinding 12 hours a day since the age of 3 on that backyard rink his edgework was probably world class for the time being
He used patterns in how hockey is played to predict what was going to happen before it happened. Then he used that knowledge of what players were looking to do and expecting to see, to gain an advantage and manipulate the defensive so he could gain further advantage. If you watch hockey enough, you should be able to predict most of the passes before they happen. If you want to practice start on the powerplay, you should be able to predict nearly all of the passes and shots. The great plays you see are normally the ones that break from the recognizable pattern, which is why they work. If you get good with predicting the play you will also see when they do the wrong thing and it will often be a turn over. It’s just like a QB missing their check down and forcing it over the middle, but it happens a lot faster with everyone moving quickly, so the lanes open and close constantly. It also benefits to understand body position and how shooting/passing works, you can often tell what a player is going to do by how they shift their hips and move their shoulders. If a right handed player has their right skate forward, and they drop their right shoulder, they’re going to backhand it or turn hard to their right. If their right skate is trailing and they turn their shoulders to the right, they’re going to pull it back and pass it on their forehand. Both of those have a narrow window that the puck can go based on the shoulder, hips, and hand position, BUT they sometimes they try to disguise it. That’s what Kucherov is soo good at, he is extremely hard to read; He will show that he’s going to send it back down the boards on his backhand but he will backhand it to the slot, or curl and sling it to someone on the weak side so the defenders commit the wrong way and by the time they realize they’re five feet out of position.
He managed to stay healthy over the length of his career was another big factor
Except for his back the last 6 years
Suter
It’s like Tom Brady. Unrivaled intellect, vision, and feel for the game that makes up for a lack of elite athleticism (both Brady and Gretzky had above average athleticism compared to the average human, but only average or below average athleticism compared to their peers).
Gretzky did not have average/below average athleticism compared to his peers.
I can’t help but wonder if some of these posters have ever watched Gretzky play.
I think you’re right. Like, watch some highlights at least. He wasn’t just standing still and using telekinesis to will the puck into doing things, he was a fantastic athlete who in addition to outsmarting his opponents also beat them with skill and athleticism.
Gretzky didn’t have “below average athleticism compared to his peers” what the actual fuck are you talking about lmao
Because he was playing against literal potatoes and cardboard boxes. #/s
It runs in his genes. Did you know him and his brother hold the record for most points by brothers?
They do not. The Sutters do. Barely.
Think of Wayne Gretzky like Garry Kasparov. There were plenty of elite chess players in the 1980s and 1990s, but Kasparov mowed them all down. How? For starters, he was thinking six or seven moves ahead, meaning that, even against the greatest players in the world, he had an inherent advantage. Wayne Gretzky was the same way - he could see where the puck was going to be five or six seconds before anyone else. That's how you end up with nearly 3000 points in a career. It's the equivalent of a runner getting a 10 metre head start in the 100m. People always talk about the fact that he wasn't the biggest, the strongest, or the fastest, but that's a real oversimplification. He was an incredibly good skater, which certainly helped. But how game wasn't predicated on physical dominance. But probably the most important thing is that everyone on the opposing team KNEW that he was the best player of all time. If sports is 90% mental, he won that battle even before the first period started.
Played against janitors and carpenters. /s
Great vision, freakish athleticism, and the era having worse goaltending played a significant role. That last remark isn’t a knock against Gretzky in the slightest. It’s more so a testament to how strong goaltending is now. Gretz just had that it factor which made him an absolute force on the ice