I'm just glad I got to see players like Phil & Tony Esposito, Bobby Hull, Guy Lafleur, Gerry Cheevers, Darryl Sittler, Steve Shutt, Mike Palmateer, Bob Gainey, Ken Dryden, Eddie Giacomin, Borje Salming,  Butch Goring, Yvan Cournoyer, Denis Potvin, Guy Lapointe, Serge Savard, Bobby Clarke, Marcel Dionne & others at the tail end of their careers. And young legends like Mike Bossy, Gretz, Messier, Grant Fuhr, Dale Hawerchuk, Clark Gillies, Bernie Nicholls, Bryan Trottier & Mario Lemieux on the way up. 

I saw Gretzky's first ever NHL game in Winnipeg. He would have been 18 at the time. He played terrible and the Winnipeg fans were chanting "Superstar" and taunting him, as Gretzky came with a lot of hype of course. I remember thinking that maybe the hype wasn't warranted. I probably was wrong about that....

EDIT:

I looked it up - Dec 7, 1979. The Jets won 8-3.

I saw Gretzky's first ever NHL game in Winnipeg. He would have been 18 at the time. He played terrible and the Winnipeg fans were chanting "Superstar" and taunting him, as Gretzky came with a lot of hype of course. I remember thinking that maybe the hype wasn't warranted. I probably was wrong about that....

EDIT:

I looked it up - Dec 7, 1979. The Jets won 8-3.

Oh, no- you were correct- he's not even in the league any more.

 

I saw Gretzky's first ever NHL game in Winnipeg. He would have been 18 at the time. He played terrible and the Winnipeg fans were chanting "Superstar" and taunting him, as Gretzky came with a lot of hype of course. I remember thinking that maybe the hype wasn't warranted. I probably was wrong about that....

EDIT:

I looked it up - Dec 7, 1979. The Jets won 8-3.

Oh, no- you were correct- he's not even in the league any more.

 

I saw Gretzky in the fall of 1978 as a 17 year old Indianapolis Racer when the Jets were in the WHA at the Old Barn on Maroons Road. No one knew at the time the kind of player he'd become back then. He was just this skinny kid trying to find his way with a bad team. Lots of hype back then too.