Gretzky's Tears: Hockey, Canada, and the Day Everything Changed

By Stephen Brunt

Renowned sportswriter Stephen Brunt reveals how “the Great One,” who was bought and sold more than once, decided that the comfortable Canadian city where hockey ruled couldn’t compete with the slushy ice of a California franchise.

Bobby Orr’s career ended prematurely, with tears. Wayne Gretzky’s tears, unlike Orr’s, announced not an ending but another beginning. Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers had four Stanley Cup victories, but Gretzky may then have had other goals in mind.

Beginning with his dad, Walter, and continuing with Nelson Skalbania, Peter Pocklington, Bruce McNall, Jerry Buss — and with the CBC’s Peter Gzowski as chronicler for the eager masses — the enormity of Gretzky’s talent attracted all sorts of people who were after a variety of vicarious thrills.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Oct 6, 2009
• ISBN: 9780307372970

Stephen Brunt

Stephen Brunt is Canada's premier sports writer and commentator. He is lead columnist for the Globe and Mail, and won a Michener Award for his piece on negligence and corruption in boxing, and was nominated for the National Newspaper Award for his account of meeting with Muhammed Ali. He is the author of Facing Ali: The Opposition Weighs In.