Ranger Country Now in Wayne's World

Ranger Country Now in Wayne's World
By Alex Frias, NY Rangers Correspondent

October 6, 1996 will go down as one of the happiest days in New York Ranger history. As that is the day the Great One, Wayne Gretzky, skated onto the ice in "the world's famous arena" as one of the homeboys, one of the New York homeboys.
After signing with the Rangers as a free agent to a two-year deal worth $10 million this past summer, people in New York were expecting big things from not only Gretzky, but the team.
"People expect us to win, and that's the way it should be," Gretzky says. "That's pro sports. We get paid to win."
But while the team got off to a dreadful 1-3-2 start, Gretzky himself has been playing some pretty good hockey. While he only has two goals and four assists to show for it, he has been one of the few Rangers to play well during their slow start. When Mark Messier missed two games because of his suspension for hitting Florida's Mike Hough from behind along the boards, Gretzky was one of the few Rangers to pick up his game. On numerous occasions he's made incredible plays to get the puck to his linemates, and instead of making the most of their opportunity, their still wondering how Mr. Gretzky got them the puck.
Gretzky says his new linemates "may be a little nervous playing with me. I've played the same way my whole career. Maybe I made some passes they weren't used to."
Because of the World Cup tournament that ended September 14 and featured the core of the Rangers, they never played together as a team in nine pre-season games and practiced for only a week as a full group before the start of the season. And with an astounding 20 games in their first 40 nights, they have little time for the long practices needed to adjust to Gretzky's creative skills that are simply baffling some teammates.
At the start of the season, coach Colin Campbell had Sergei Nemchinov and Alexei Kovalev penciled in as the wingers on Gretzky's line, with Nemchinov being the defensive rearguard. But that didn't work out too well, as Nemchinov fell into Campbell's doghouse and was replaced by sophomore Niklas Sundstrum. However, with the need for more offense, Campbell moved Luc Robitaille back to his natural left wing spot on Gretzky's line and shifted Kovalev to Messier's line. This combination should work as Robitaille is a sniper that knows how to play with Wayne from their days back in Los Angeles. While there seems to be some tension between the two, as Robitaille accused Gretzky of being behind the trade that sent Lucky Luc to Pittsburgh for Rick Tocchet back in the summer of '94, they must settle their differences if not off the ice, at least on it.
Back in the 1980s, when the Edmonton Oilers were winning Stanley Cups like Oprah lost and gained weight, Gretzky was scoring 200 points a season and Messier was just part of the surrounding cast. Back then, Gretzky was the team captain and on the first line, while Messier centered the second. This time around, Messier is the captain and on the first line while Gretzky is on the second.
"Mark was always the leader of the Oilers," Gretzky said. "But when a guy's getting 200 points, it's hard to take some of the focus away from that. Mark's always been the same kind of leader, same kind of player."
With the addition of Gretzky, Campbell had a very tough decision to make. With Messier as the captain, there were still two alternate captain roles that needed to be filled. Brian Leetch is as integral part of this machine as you can get, so that left one job, with two excellent candidates, Adam Graves and Gretzky. Fortunately for Campbell, the two players worked it out between themselves at the World Cup and decided that after Messier, Graves is the heart and soul of the team. And this being Messier's team, Gretzky will let his on-ice performance do his talking.
"I don't care if I'm 1, 1-A or 3-D," Gretzky said. "I plan on playing hard and helping Mark. But the last thing I want to do in any situation is step on Mark's toes."
Either way, the people in New York are more than happy to have the Great One on their side as they demonstrated on October 6, as a video of Gretzky pulling on a Ranger jersey was projected across the ice while the sellout crowd of 18,200 gave Gretzky a standing ovation that lasted nearly a minute. His ovation was only outdone by the ultimate introduction for his pal Messier. And while the Rangers did go on to lose the game to Florida, Ranger fans hope it was the start of a beautiful relationship. A relationship that could just climax with another celebration with Lord Stanley's Cup.