Greatness Confirmed

"I liked to entertain. I loved playing the way I thought the game should be played. I knew people wanted to see me take that biscuit and go with it." Hull is grinning as he says this, eyes glinting. His voice is raspy and full of laughter. " Wayne 's got that same attitude. He thinks of himself as an entertainer, and the more he entertains, the more packed houses he'll draw, the more franchises will be kept alive, the more players will have work, and the more money everyone will make. It's no strain on him to give as much as he does to the game, off the ice and on. Any strain is overcome by the joy of doing well. Look at him. He doesn't want to come off the ice. That's another thing that sets him apart. He comes to play every game. He likes to perform."

Gretzky is killing a penalty early in the game and steals the puck from the Flyers' captain, Bill Barber . Gretzky skates in by himself on a breakaway and takes his stick back, pausing at the top of his swing, upsetting the natural rhythm of the play. When he finally slaps the shot, it ricochets off the post and wide of the net. Hull winces. "I never liked to go in alone," he says. "Too much time to think about it." Then he turns, surprised. "You find yourself pulling for him, don't you?"

Gretzky is behind the net on an Edmonton power play as two players scrap for the puck along the boards. "He's not chasing the puck, not out in traffic where a guy can hit him," says Hull. "His line-mates know where he is, and they can just blindly throw the puck behind the net. When the puck hits his stick it stays there. A lot of these guys have skinny little blades that the puck is always bouncing over, but Gretzky 's got a big stick and a big blade, too."

Gretzky , as Hull did, tapes his blade all the way from toe to heel and then rubs baby powder into the tape to reduce its tackiness. Without the powder the puck feels sluggish on the stick. "I've noticed that when the puck comes off the boards, it's usually spinning very quickly," says Gretzky . "My first year in the league I didn't use any tape, and the puck kept sliding off the end of my stick. The cushion the tape provides helps stop the spin."

In the second period, Gretzky sets up Kurri for a shorthanded goal, and later he assists Pat Hughes on a power-play goal. Hull is laughing. "See what he did?" he says. "He gave it to Hughes before he ever saw Hughes. He knows where everyone is at all times. I could kick in 25 goals a year if I played with Gretzky .

"Hockey needed a shot in the arm when he came along. It needed a champion. People are again relating to hockey as a game of skill, because that's the way Wayne plays. We were getting away from that. Scouts had been forgetting about the goals-assists-points column and, because of the success of the Flyers, going right to the columns that told about total penalty minutes and size. 'Ah-ha! This guy's an intimidator.' So he's drafted. But now they're looking for goals and assists again."

Gretzky is knocked down for the umpteenth time but gets to his feet and, relentlessly, begins chasing the puck carrier again, trying to score the tying goal. Hull, still brawny and powerful at 43, is shaking his head, not quite able to accept this flaw in Gretzky 's style, this penchant for getting knocked on his can. "I just never wanted to fall," says Hull. "I thought it was a sin to get knocked down."

Suddenly Gretzky slaps the puck out of the air and is stickhandling along the boards, looking for an opening. Edmonton , behind 3-2 in the final minute, has pulled its goalie for a sixth attacker. Gretzky is trying to make a play that will never unfold. "Just look at him," Hull says, grinning in admiration. "The puck is glued to him. On the two teams, taking nothing away from the rest of the guys, who in the hell else out there do you want to look at but Gretzky?"

No one else. He's sharing something with us that's pretty good.