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"Yee-haw! I'm Wayne Gretzky! Yee-haw!"

That's a common cry around the offices of LCS Hockey. Whenever the Great One sets up a goal - or god forbid scores one himself - I'm always quick to make sure everyone else knows it. You see, Gretzky isn't real popular around these parts. Good ol' Greensburg is Mario Lemieux country. Always has been, always will be. That just makes it all the more fun to sing the virtues of Gretzky.

For example, take this past Saturday, December 19. Gretzky was playing his final game in the storied Maple Leaf Gardens, which will be replaced by a new corporate whore of a barn in February. Anyway, we were all standin' around gettin' liquored up when the highlights were shown on the big screen. "Look out!" I warned, as Gretzky was shown dealing with the puck behind the Toronto cage. "That's his office! He's in his office!" Gretzky then proceeded to slip a perfect pass in front that Adam Graves deposited behind Glenn Healy. Next came a drunken chorus of "Yee-haw! I'm Wayne Gretzky! Yee-haw!"

Sure, the Rangers got smoked by the Leafs, 7-4, and the other bar patrons didn't appreciate my vocal support of the Anti-Mario, but who cares? Gretzky had a pair of assists. That meant two more shots for me, my friend. Then I fought every man, woman, and child in the place. I'm still coughing up blood. Aw, that was great, that was fun.

Gretzky's final appearance in the hallowed Leaf lair was big news. Hockey's all-time leading scorer grew up in Brantford, Ontario, which is about 60 miles southwest of Maple Leaf Gardens, and always dreamed of starring on its famous stage.

"Well, it is hard to say one particular reason that makes Maple Leaf Gardens special," said Gretzky. "But it is really a unique facility in that it is one of the first arenas that we used to help establish a National Hockey League, and is the foundation of making the Toronto Maple Leaf franchise what is it today.

"It is a place that people in Ontario call the Church of hockey," continued Gretzky. "So it is a very special place, and every youngster who has ever grown up in that area or had an opportunity to at least visit Maple Leaf Gardens and for those of us who have been lucky enough to play there, can understand why this arena is so special."

Gretzky still fondly recalls his first trip to the Gardens. He was a young lad of six years old when he scored two tickets to see the Leafs take on the mighty Oakland Seals. It didn't matter that he and his grandmother were in the last row, little Wayne enjoyed the night to the fullest, even if he was a bit awestruck.

"I got there an hour early and I sat there; I don't think I moved the whole time," remembers Gretzky. "I think the first time I got out of my seat was after they announced the three stars for the game."

Gretzky's NHL debut at the Gardens came on November 21, 1979. The Leafs and Edmonton Oilers tied 4-4 that night, with Gretzky collecting two goals and two assists. It was just the first of what would prove to be many memorable performances by Gretzky in front of the Toronto faithful.

Gretzky is the all-time leading scorer among visitors to the Gardens. Including the two assists he notched this past Saturday, Gretzky has scored 30 goals and 77 points in 30 career regular season games on Maple Leaf ice.

Wayne used to go buckwild against the white and blue in his old- school Oiler days. He played 14 contests for the Bubbling Crude at the Gardens, ringing up an astonishing 22 goals and 48 points. Included in the scoring barrage were three four-point games, three five-point showings, and two monumental six-point efforts.

Gretzky and those tremendous Oiler teams never had much of a problem getting up for games at the Gardens.

"It was real interesting because the players who grew up in Ontario had this feeling of wow, we can't wait to play in Maple Leaf Gardens," recalls Gretzky. "Then we had these European guys who really weren't sure what the hoopla was about. Then, of course, we had a couple of western guys who kind of understood what it meant to play at Maple Leaf Gardens, but quite honestly maybe didn't have the same feeling that we had growing up.

"But, believe me, the excitement was always there. We would always play in Maple Leaf Gardens, and Glen (Sather) always made sure that he timed it, that we would play there on a Saturday night and then he would make sure that we could stay over to practice the next day in the Gardens before we would head to the next city. So he knew that it excited all of us. And he knew that all the players really enjoyed playing there."

Not every hometown boy has had as much success as Gretzky working in the intense spotlight of Maple Leaf Gardens.

"It is a tough situation for a lot of people," said Gretzky. "It is not easy for visiting teams a lot of times to play there because of commitment to friends and relatives, but it is also tough on the -- probably the Toronto players. But I think the one thing I have always made perfectly clear is that first and foremost, it is very easy to get excited for a game in Maple Leaf Gardens."

Gretzky attributes his good fortune to three things: preparation, dedication, and cheap wine. Well, I sort of made up the cheap wine part, but the other two are true.

"I don't think I have ever really swayed from my commitment and that was always to be the best that I could be," explained Gretzky. "And by saying that, I mean I have always in my career realized and believed that you start preparing for a game the day before and the night before, and I always spend that time with my family and get a chance to see friends or family. But once I go to bed the night before that game, the next day my focus and my attention is basically on the game itself and my friends and relatives know that and, quite frankly, leave me alone until after the game. So I am able to combine seeing people and also being ready for the hockey game.

"The easiest thing in the world is to get up for a hockey game in Maple Leaf Gardens, and that is why I probably have had most of my success."

Of all Gretzky's brilliant showings at the Gardens, one night in particular stands out from the rest. It was May 29, 1993. Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings were battling the Leafs in the Western Conference Finals for the right to play for the Stanley Cup. After scoring the overtime-winner in Game Six to send the series back to the Gardens, Gretzky dominated Game Seven. Number 99 rang up a hat trick and an assist, including the game-winner in the third period, to lead the Royalty to a thrilling 5-4 victory and their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance in franchise history.

"I think, that, when I look at my career - people often say to me what do I think my best game was in the NHL?" said Gretzky. "I was fortunate enough to play with some great players in Edmonton, I'd played on some great teams. Obviously, there are a lot of games that I could kind of point to. But I have got to honestly say that in my mind, maybe the best game I ever played was Game Seven in Maple Leaf Gardens in 1993.

"The situation and the circumstances were, obviously, we were an underdog. We were playing on the road. We were playing against not only a team and a city but maybe a country (because) at that time Montreal had already advanced to the Finals. And all of Canada, rightfully, was pulling for a Montreal-Toronto Final. I remember that game with fond memories, and as I said, in a lot of ways, maybe it was the best game that I have ever played in the NHL."

With such arenas as Boston Garden, Chicago Stadium, and the Montreal Forum already whacked Goodfellas style, Maple Leaf Gardens is one of the few remaining links to the sport's glorious past. In today's world where pieces of green paper are considered more important than tradition and loyalty, the NHL continues to lose its identity. New arenas, new teams, new jerseys... the league isn't what it used to be. What's more important, money or character? It can be damn near impossible to have both. It's just too bad the NHL chose the wrong one.

The changing face of the league has not gone unnoticed by the Great One.

"I mean, one of the great parts of professional sports are the teams, the names and, of course, the facilities that those teams participate in," said Gretzky. "To sit down and explain to somebody what it was like in the Chicago Stadium to hear the anthem in there, you can't really explain it to them. You can't really show them exactly what it was like unless they were actually there. To play in the Boston Garden and feel like the people in the second balcony or in the balcony section were almost on top of the ice.

"Unfortunately time, you know, would change not only people, athletes, but facilities and, over the course of time, the business. I have said this many a times, you don't replace Maple Leaf Gardens. It is a special place and something that I think is sacred. But I also understand the position that the owners, the management and the League, the situation they are in; that we have to grow with the times, and we have to change with the times. Unfortunately, sometimes we don't like change, and unfortunately, sometimes you have to make changes. But we will never recapture the atmosphere that we had in places like the Montreal Forum, Maple Leaf Gardens, Chicago Stadium or Buffalo Auditorium. Those things are not going to happen."

On the bright side, tradition has to start somewhere. All the modern arenas are giving a whole new generation of fans a chance to begin their own cherished memories.

"But what we have to do is create new history and create new excitement with what guys like Ray Bourque are doing in the new Boston arena, and what Hasek is doing in Buffalo's new arena," said Gretzky. "So those are the things that we have to start leaning on, and yet we can never forget about history and what those players and what those stadiums meant to our game."

Wayne Gretzky may have played his final game in Maple Leaf Gardens, but he'll never forget the experience or the honor of skating in the legendary building. And it's unlikely that the Toronto fans will ever forget his unbelievable play, especially that one night in May of '93, no matter how hard they try.

Meanwhile, in a related story, New York's Brent Fedyk also played his final game at Maple Leaf Gardens on December 19, but no one really gave a rat's ass.

"Nobody likes me," said a friend of mine pretending to be Brent Fedyk. "You know, I used to be a Crazy Eight! I used to have class... I used to be a contender... I used to be somebody!"

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