The Great One says Blues' best players need to step up, simple as that
Hockey Hall of Fame forward Wayne Gretzky offered a succinct explanation of what the St. Louis Blues need to do in order to bounce back from Monday's Game 3 loss to the Minnesota Wild.
"You need your best players to be the best players on the ice," he said on The Imig, Montez and Moe Show on CBS Sports 920. "They've proven that they can be that way and, like I said, I know it's a down time right now ... but I know that's what makes it so great. People care and the fans want their team to do well. They're worried for the Blues and, jeez, you should be, because Minnesota pretty much thoroughly dominated Game 3."
Despite what that little snippet might have suggested, The Great One was by no means pessimistic about the Blues' chances. In fact, he spoke very highly both of this team's resiliency and of coach Ken Hitchcock, whom he chose as an assistant for Team Canada at the 2002 Winter Games -- a team that won gold.
Gretzky also offered his analysis of forward Vladimir Tarasenko and reminisced on his time with the Blues.
You can listen to the entire interview here:
Some notable excerpts from Gretzky's appearance on CBS Sports 920:
General thoughts on the Blues: "I still really believe the 82-game schedule means something. The Blues had a really good 82 games. I'm not taking anything away from Minnesota, but they were at their best probably over the last 35 or 40 games. So, you got two teams that are playing solid hockey over the last 40 games, but you're going to have peaks and valleys in the playoffs. I know it's harder for the fans on the outside, because they live and die with every loss, but it's a long series and St. Louis has proved over the course of these 82 games to be a very competitive, sound hockey club. You just have to believe in the system and in the coaching staff and that the best players will play their best hockey in Game 4 and get back in the series.
"That's just the way professional sports is. They still have a long way to go. They have to win one game in Minnesota to win this series, so it's a lot easier to win Game 4 than it would be to go in there and win Game 6."
On Hitchcock: "I don't think I would point to the coaching staff. As a matter of fact, one of the first guys I hired in 2002 on my Canadian Olympic team to be one of my coaches was Coach Hitchcock.
"Whenever you're not winning, whenever people get frustrated, there are fingers that are pointed. That's just the reality of being in those positions. But I've been around the game a lot of years. I would measure his knowledge of the game compatible to that of anyone else who's coached in the National Hockey League. He's got three Olympic gold medals for Team Canada, he's got a Stanley Cup ring as a coach -- coaching's not the issue. When you get down to it, their record over the course of this season has been very solid -- and listen, I'm not saying this to create a controversy, but when you get into the playoffs, the best players have to be the best players. There's no secrets to it.
"I always said if you're going to get the flowers thrown at you when things go well, you better be prepared to take the criticism that's going to come with it if you're not winning. Consequently, I just look to the best players. They have got to be their best players on the ice in Game 4 and throughout the rest of the series. It's pretty simplistic."
On Wild's focus seeming to be more on Steve Ott than top-line forwards: "Good for Steve Ott that he earned a presence in the minds of the Minnesota players. He's a player that digs deep every single shift in every single game. He's one of those guys I'd despise playing against, but I'd love to have him on my team as a teammate.
"When you're having success as a team, those guys are part of it. Those guys, like Ott -- the grinders, the muckers, the guys that are going to do all the dirty work -- they're part of the success of the team. But the thought process for the Minnesota Wild should be, 'How do we stop Vladimir Tarasenko?' Like he did in Game 2, the Blues need him to be like that in Game 4. And you need (T.J.) Oshie to get a big goal and you need (David) Backes to make a big play or get a big hit.
"Listen, the game hasn't changed. It was that way when Red Berenson was playing for the Blues, it was that way when Brett (Hull) and I were with the Blues, those things don't change. You need your best players to be the best players on the ice. They've proven that they can be that way and, like I said, I know it's a down time right now ... but I know that's what makes it so great. People care and the fans want their team to do well and they're worried for the Blues and, jeez, you should be, because Minnesota pretty much thoroughly dominated Game 3."
On team's mentality/approach: "You can't worry about what the score of the series is. You have to worry about the next game. I know it's an old cliche in hockey and in basketball and baseball, but it really is the reality.
"It's like being a parent. The responsibility of an organization and the coaches is, last night and this morning, sort of a scolding, what we did wrong, what we have to do better as a team and how we're going to make ourselves a better team for Game 4 and here's the mistakes. Then once you get through that process, it's like giving your child confidence in what they're doing. You have to build them up to the point that by the time they're ready to step on the ice for Game 4, they believe in their minds that they're up in the series two games to one. So, that's the job of the coaching staff and I'm sure that's what Ken's gonna do and I'm sure that's what they have done for the last 12 hours and I'm sure the Blues will be ready to play Game 4. They seem to be a team that's played better with a little bit of adversity in some of the games that I've watched."
On Tarasenko: "He's a little bit of a cross between Hully, for sure -- because he's got the release that Brett does and that Brett did have -- he's got really soft hands like a Peter Stastny, and he sees the ice as well as anyone that's ever played. He's got a lot of characteristics of a lot of different guys and yet as time goes on here, he's going to establish his own credibility as the player he is.
"And you know what, the hardest thing to do is compare eras and players and athletes, but it's the most fun thing to do. That's what we love to do. We love to sit around and (say), 'Who's the better player? Larry Bird or Magic Johnson? Who's the greatest tennis player? John McEnroe or Bjorn Borg?' And those are things we'll talk about forever in life and that's what makes sports so much fun and so energetic.
"But I look for Tarasenko to have a big game for them tomorrow night. He's a guy that's gotta get that big goal. I had a coach that told me, 'It doesn't matter how many goals you get in the playoffs, it's about getting that big goal or that big play at the right time that gives your team the lift.' And that's what's imperative."
On what the Blues need to do tactically: "First of all, I think you have to play with your identity. You can't change at this point in time after the successful season you had as a hockey club. Guys like Ott and Barret Jackman, they have to be the sort of muckers and the grinders that they are each and every night. They need to be disciplined, and yet very physical. They have to get that big save, which every team needs in the playoffs. And they need their key core guys to come up big and when the key core guys come up big, it pulls the rest of the team with you.
"It's amazing about hockey players, they're such an unselfish group. I wish people could sit on the bench for a Stanley Cup playoff game, because each and every guy is pulling for that guy that's going on the next shift to get a big goal or make a big play or get a big hit. And after the game, you'd never know if you walked in there after the Blues game the other night when Tarasenko got the three goals, who got the three goals, because each and every guy felt like they were part of getting those three goals. That's what makes hockey so special -- the players and the people that are in it.
"The Blues, they have a long way to go here. They need one big game, three good periods in Minnesota in Game 4 and they're playing themselves right back into the series."
On who's better at golf, him or former teammate Hull: "Well, I'm a little bit better than him now because my partner's Dustin (Johnson, a professional golfer who is married to Gretzky's daughter Paulina). I don't know who he's gonna get." (Laughs.)
You can follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen.
