At the time of the trade, Gretzky was clearly the best hockey player on the planet.  He was coming off his eighth straight season of winning the Hart Memorial Trophy as the leagues Most Valuable Player, as well as seven straight Art Ross trophies as the league’s top scorer.  More important than his individual accomplishments was the success of his team, as he led the Oilers to four Stanley Cups in a five year span from 1984-1988.

The trade of Gretzky was often compared to the trade of Babe Ruth, as both owners had to “sell” their best player due to other failed business ventures.  To this day, many people in Edmonton still cringe when they hear the name Peter Pocklington.

Here is a clip of Gretzky’s press conference when the trade was announced.

Notable Birthdays

Brett Hull, NHL – Born August 9th 1964 (age 47) in Belleville, Ontario

Deion Sanders, NFL – Born August 9th 1967 (age 44) in Fort Myers, Florida

Rod Brind’Amour, NHL – Born August 9th 1970 (age 41) in Ottawa, Ontario

In the second period of a game against the Vancouver Canucks, Gretzky received a cross-ice feed from Marty McSorley and buried it into a yawning cage for the record breaking goal.  “The Great One” would record an additional 92 goals in his career, finishing with a total of 894 regular season goals.  At the time of his retirement many considered this record to be untouchable, but that is no longer the case.

In 2005 a Russian sniper by the name of Alexander Ovechkin entered the league and has been a scoring machine ever since.  Ovechkin has averaged over 53 goals per season in his first five seasons.  At the young age of 24, if he were to stay healthy, 900 career goals could be a definite possibility.

Here is a clip of Gretzky’s 802nd goal.

Notable Birthdays

Jason Kidd: NBA – Born March 23rd 1973 (age 37) in San Francisco, California

Mark Buerhle: MLB – Born March 23rd 1979 (age 31) in St. Charles, Missouri

Maurice Jones-Drew: NFL – Born March 23rd 1985 (age 25) in Oakland, California

In last night’s Dallas Stars/Los Angeles Kings game, there were, not three, four fights (!), so fans received more than their money’s worth in that compartment, but it was the second fight that I enjoyed the most. As soon as the puck dropped on a faceoff mid-way through the second period, Stars’ Brandon Segal and Kings’ Kyle Clifford dropped the gloves to settle an earlier score from in front of the net.

The fight itself doesn’t win any awards for how long it carries on. In fact, it only lasts one good punch, but both players were going all out against one another, you could just sense the fury and Clifford ultimately drops Segal to the ice like a rag doll, which is enough to make any fight a good one.  I’d highly recommend checking out the other three fights from the game, but this one takes the cake in my online-pinion. The Kings also won the game, 3-1.

Here’s the fight below:

The story of the night was rookie goaltender Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings who won his 17th game of the season and shut-out his third team of the year.  Quick was stellar in net stopping all 29 shots and only letting one goal in the shoot-out.  Jonathan Quick is “The Stat Line Of The Night” for Thursday March 26th, 2009.

“Los Angeles G Jonathan Quick did not allow a goal in the first 65 minutes of hockey against the Stars on Thursday. It wasn’t enough to get the win as he was met save for save by Marty Turco who also took a shutout 65 minutes into Thursday’s game. Quick stopped two out of the three shots he faced in the shootout and Turco only stopped one as Quick got the 1-0 shootout win.”

If the Kings can continue winning games they might have a shot at the 8th playoff seed in the Western Conference.

Kings 1, Stars 0 (SO) – [Sportsline]

His best season was 2006-07, when he had 31 goals and 46 assists in 81 games. Yes, that’s right, Dean traded a 26 year old, soon to be star, to the Flames for the 12th overall pick? Give me a %*&!@# break. Are you a couple of cards short of a full deck Dean or what!

Stuff like this makes me sick. Yes, I’m a Kings fan, but still, how dumb are you. And to make things worse, they go and trade the 12th pick to Buffalo for the 13th pick and a 3rd round pick? Ahh, hello, Dean, are you there. Don’t you think, if Buffalo wants that pick that they would give alot more than just a third rounder and there 13th pick? I guess not Dean, you donk. Anyways, that’s all i got to say about that!

I’m extremely ticked, as you can tell, but I’mhappy for Mike cause he’s a great player and hes gonna make a mess with Jarome Iginla by his side. If he can stay healthy he can easily reach the 50 goal plateau, and possibly reach 100 points in Calgary.

All you fantasy players out there here’s a player you might want to draft earlier then normal in most drafts. Well call Mike our semi sleeperpick for the 08/09 season. Coming off an injury plagued season and playing with one of the worst teams in the NHL, Mike is do to have a great year with the Flames.

Go Mikey Go! Make the Kings eat it!