November 25, 2005
The Propensity for Intensity Is Still His Style
By JASON DIAMOS
The New York Times
GLENDALE, Ariz. - More than a month into his first season as an N.H.L. 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
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/hockey/nationalhockeyleague/phoenixcoyotes/index.html?inline=nyt-org">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 $850 million real estate development next door to Glendale Arena, the Coyotes' new $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 $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 N.F.L.'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."
Before ending his playing days in 1999, Gretzky held 61 N.H.L. records. Cliff Fletcher, the Coyotes' senior executive vice president for hockey operations, recalled the reaction when Gretzky decided to coach. "I know a lot of people suggested to him that he was crazy," he said.
Was Fletcher, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame last year, one of them?
"Initially, I felt: 'Why, Wayne, why? What have you got to gain from this?' " he said. "I mean, the greatest player who ever played the game. Impeccable résumé, reputation. And that's just why he wanted to do it. He wanted to prove he could do it."
Gretzky's oldest son, Ty, lives with him in the Phoenix area and plays high school hockey. Janet Gretzky, his wife, and their four other children live in Southern California.
"I don't think I wanted him out of the house," Janet Gretzky said during a recent visit here. "But it was definitely a joint decision, because it was a big change for the family. And I was definitely 120 percent behind it."
Gretzky also has professional obligations. He 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."
Curtis Joseph, a veteran goaltender who has been the Coyotes' best player this season, played against Gretzky for several seasons.
"Obviously, as coach he demands respect, whatever he says," Joseph said. "Everybody listens and doesn't question. I've played on teams where you have healthy discussions with the coach. Sometimes there are heated battles on the bench. But I don't foresee any of that here."
Gretzky said he had encouraged his players to talk to him. Joseph was asked whether that would be intimidating.
"For sure," Joseph said. "But he wants you to go to him and tell him what you see, or how can we get better. He's all for open discussion. It's just probably that initial step for some guys to get over. But he does have a big advantage over most coaches."
Gretzky said: "It's a hard thing for me, too. I don't want to intimidate guys. And I don't want to be a complete idiot to them. I want to talk to them. And I think more and more guys are getting comfortable now."
Gretzky inherited a Coyotes team that did not qualify for the playoffs in three of the past four seasons.
Since the franchise moved from Winnipeg to Phoenix before the 1996-97 season, the Coyotes have failed to advance past the first round. And since the Winnipeg Jets left the World Hockey Association and joined the N.H.L. before the 1979-80 season, the franchise has never advanced past the second round of the playoffs. The last time the franchise made it to the second round was 1987.
Considering that history, Gretzky was asked what he would consider success in his first season as coach.
"First place," he said. "I don't think of anything else. I tell the players every day our goal is to finish first in our division."
Great athletes in the four major professional sports in North America have not fared well when they have converted to coaching.
Larry Bird, who directed the Indiana Pacers to the N.B.A. finals in 2000, was perhaps the most successful. But Bird, who was also named the N.B.A.'s coach of the year in 1998, won three championships as a player - three more than he won as a coach.
"Joe Torre was an M.V.P.," Gretzky said, referring to the manager who has guided the Yankees to four World Series titles.
But Torre, the 1971 National League most valuable player, is not considered one of the greatest baseball players ever. Ted Williams may be a better example.
Williams was named the American League's manager of the year with the Washington Senators in 1969. By 1973, however, Williams was out of baseball, his teams never finishing better than fourth.
"Maybe in some ways I'm a little bit different," Gretzky said. "I felt like as a player, I was successful because I worked my way to become a player. And so as a coach, that's the way I feel. I think that way."
Besides, Gretzky said, "People always thought I coached the teams that I played on."
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